


The Space Between Seconds

by MsShapes



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Recovering, Bucky Barnes Remembers, F/M, Love, Native American Character(s), Pain, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Protective Bucky Barnes, Romance, Sacrifice, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-07
Updated: 2016-04-30
Packaged: 2018-05-25 09:10:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6188611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsShapes/pseuds/MsShapes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a split decision made in a moment of chaos, two lives never fated to meet become intertwined. One soul moored in absolution & the other adrift in their own skin, with time that seems nearly unending. With every choice Tala Sagoyewatha makes, she finds the very culture and life she'd been dedicated to all her years begin to crack as Bucky Barnes invades her mind.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Memoriam

**Author's Note:**

> This is a new story I have literally just thought of and pulled from the depths of my mind.
> 
> Please, please let me know if you think it is any good, and worth continuing.
> 
> Thank you, and please enjoy.
> 
> -g.

The street lights flickered unsure if they should shine, seeing as the first rays of the sun still hadn't reached to far into the sky, leaving an orange glow that washed over everything from the buildings down to the wading tourists and puddles from the morning drizzle that had faded as quickly as it had come.

The brisk coolness hadn't left the air and had found even the locals of Washington D.C. bundled up with thicker jackets and scarves in every color imaginable.

Crowds had thankfully died down with the recent weather, and had found most of the population indoors leaving the sidewalks vacant enough that the long legged woman walking briskly out of pure habit didn't have to follow her usual side stepping routine to be on her way.

Taller than most of the populace making their way down the D.C. streets, she was at ease with her surroundings. Caribbean green eyes watched each person she overlapped and passed with a confidence that bled from every pore, skin bronzed speaking of native descent, brunette curls lazily sashaying across her shoulders and framing a stubborn chin and plump pink lips that at the moment felt slightly chapped.

A soft black hoodie, dark skinny jeans, dark brown riding boots, red gloves and a pink scarf with small ear buds leading into her back pocket completed the vision of the Native American woman.

Tala Sagoyewatha had been intent to have a lazy morning in her home, a large townhouse near John Marshall Park, but as usual her over active brain wouldn't give her that luxury.

She felt ragged, and yet rejuvenated after the past two weeks were spent in Central America assisting a tribe, a trip that had seen her nearly sleepless the entire time.

Still her sleeping patterns were evasive and with the stubborn acceptance of that fact, had tried to put the time she'd been given off to return to her own state of mind. It had found her roaming Constitution Way nearly daily, working her mind to return to its disciplined and impartial state after such an expansion.

Tala Sagoyewatha to most looked nothing more than a beautiful woman, and she found she loved the impartial and nearly militant way the masses would never sense anything out of the ordinary surrounding her entire being.

A direct descendent of Red Jacket, a powerful and important Seneca chief that had been an instrumental hand in helping the founding of the very country, given a peace medal by George Washington himself, Tala had seen the building of the republic surrounding her first hand.

Tala Sagoyewatha was two hundred and thirty five years old, and the very essence of her father's people.

Her father's tribe, the Wolf tribe, was a matriarchal community and in times of the great strife had offered a daughter of the tribe to nature and beings her people revered in hopes of a miracle.

She, as a chief's daughter, had volunteered with pride in her countenance knowing she followed in the footsteps of her warrior mother and wise woman grandmother.

Her father had been forlorn, but wouldn't dare undermine his daughter after making her first life decision in front of their tribe, and had been the instrument in the ritual to bring forth the spirit of her people. It had been her namesake from the very beginning, 'Tala' meaning Wolf in her native language, and so it was the First Wolf that had descended and given her the gifts her people needed to survive the coming hunt.

None knew the extent of how she'd be changed, nor could they attempt to understand in the truth of it.

Tala not only became the beacon of hope of her people, she aided her father in his conquests of peace with the White Men, and only after all had been said and done did her father see what had truly been done to his daughter.

As his skin turned to leather and wrinkles lined his eyes, his daughters' skin remained dewy and fresh, eyes bright and the only thing that aged. Her senses, that to him had only seemed intuition and harisma, showed themselves in frightening time as her ability to sense the souls around her increased and began to become influential even without consent.

Her father had turned from her then, drowning in the early alcohol of the time, guilty and angry at their own gods for having stolen his child from him.

He'd died a guilt ridden man, and Tala mourned his death for years waiting for her own death to follow.

It had never come, and soon she dried her face, and walked her tribe into the future given the title of a god among mortals.

An empath and immortal, Tala found her calling in aiding the tribes of her world with her gifts to pull those away from self-destruction and anger.

For all her power, she felt useless in the ways of the world, careful to keep her gifts hidden from all those not of native descent lest she be tracked. Unable to influence history much, she watched from the dark areas of time as the Native people were herded, killed, displaced, relocated.

Only once did she step from the shadows of time, and it had nearly cost her life.

Brought back to the streets and people milling around her, Tala smiled softly to herself as the buildings gave her the peace she craved from the hundreds of pin prinks of emotions that tried to wheedle their way into her brain.

The Pavilion café to her left, having opened just a bit ago, held a few servers setting up for the morning rush smiles on lips and laughter between them. Not a single ounce of animosity grew within the three women chatting good naturedly, and it was the fleeting moments of feelings such as those that gave her the mental bricks to aid against the horrors of others.

Continuing her walk as the song in her ipod changed over to a heavy beat bringing another smile to her lips, she neared the Smithsonian buildings.

Stepping over a large puddle, Tala tried slipping quickly by a small women who couldn't understand how to stop the feeling of emptiness that flooded her skull even as a man of similar build held her hand close, his emotions even and senseless.

So sad it had to be that way, but she'd grown used to the moments and flashes of lives she couldn't, well more shouldn't, change.

Tucking her gloved hands into the pockets of her hoodie, Tala took a deep breath and wiped the sensation of the couple emotions from her mind with the ease that had taken years to achieve.

Just as she had returned her mind to a calm and even state, she nearly swooned as a wave crashed through her minds wall that separated her and everyone else, nearly swallowing her psyche whole.

Holding off a faint, Tala sagged to her knees, covering her moment of weakness by keeping one foot in front of her as if she needed to check her boots for something caught in the ridges of the sole or something similar.

The wave crashed around the edges of her mind, making her dizzy as Tala frantically lifted her head, eyes wild and panicked, unsure of what was happening to her.

Nothing, nothing came at her, no weapons, no men, not a damn thing save for a long figure in dark nondescript clothing, heavy artillery boots, long shag hair and a ball cap stalking stiffly ten meters in front of her, heading towards the Smithsonian's American History building.

The anger, pain, rage, despair, and grief that continued to roll off him in the waves continued to crash against her mind began to recede slowly as he slipped inside the building, but that didn't matter to her now.

Dragging herself to her feet, a fervor taking over her actions, she scared a few tourists nearby, jumping out of her way as she took off at a run towards her unknown mental assailant.

Building her mind back up as quickly as possible, she felt slightly more prepared for the ram of emotions that came as she drew closer to him. Her mind's eye guiding her, her true eyes blind, as she weaved through out people and exhibits. Unaware that throwing her everything into protecting herself against the emotions that raged against her, she let her own emotions spread like a net sending those around her in a frenzy as well.

Reacting to her power, those around her began to speak in harsh and quick tones, nit picking and wild eyed, reacting as if under a spell as they began to fight amongst themselves.

When a woman in front of Tala raised a hand towards her petulant child, Tala stopped dead and froze.

Reigning herself in, she spread her arms out slowly recalling the nearly visible fibers of synthetic emotions that filled the air pulling them to her. Tucking them back safely within her skin. Only when the mother stooped to gather her visibly shaken child in her arms, cooing even through her own confusion did Tala lower her arms feeling limp.

Taking three long breaths to settle her crazed heart, her minds wall beginning to overlap the waves giving her solid ground once more as she glanced around her.

She stood feet from the entrance to a wing that had brought most of the tourists to the Smithsonian.

The hall of the famous Captain America and his band of heroes.

Reaching up with shaking hands to pull the ear phones from her ears, she quickly wrapped them around a few fingers and tucked them into her jeans.

She felt his presence two rooms over, his emotions outlining his body in her mind leaving her faintly aware she'd remember his shape for the rest of her life.

Taking one last breath of calm, Tala took a step forward, and another passing the aching mother, and into the hall of great men that had fought in the open where she could not.

She'd seen this man when he'd first been a beacon of hope, a sign of hope, and he'd been a complete joke to her aged mind. This Captain America, with a flashy name gave false promises she'd heard offered by white men for centuries.

Yet he'd done as he had promised, not only then, but had returned from a frozen death to aid the world once more, and for that he'd won her respect.

She had thought long and hard on whether he'd been visited by a god as she'd been even after hearing the story of his miraculous making by medicinal engineering, and had often wondered whether science could recreate the mystical.

Pulling back from her thoughts, her breath hitched softly as the man she'd followed came into view, standing in front of a large wall adorned with the face of the American hero and those of his loyal men and fighters.

Outfits stood stiff behind plates of glass, but the mans focus remained on the images, as his emotions surged once more washing through her like ice water.

Memories surged within him bringing him disbelief, he couldn't comprehend how he'd come to be so lost. Rage at a life stolen, crippling guilt, guilt so powerful she was instantly transported back to her father's last breaths.

This man, if he was a man at all, was the embodiment of human fault.

Tala let off a soft gasp as a new emotion came like a needle through her heart, Defiance.

With the sound, the man whirled around with such speed, she hardly saw him move at all until hard blue eyes captured her own, lips pulled tight in a grim expression as the part of her mind that was once again exclusively her own felt true astonishment.

The eyes looking into her very soul now, held the same face as the image behind him standing in proud memoriam with Captain America.


	2. Human

The next few moments dove into chaos with nothing more than the catching of each other's eyes.

With the inhuman speed she'd already witnessed, the man reached within his coat drawing a blade, its serrated edge giving off a whisper as it came free of its hidden place.

His emotions switched just as quickly to stamp down the guilt and sorrow to be replaced with fresh rage, the kind of rage that spoke of losing everything, of being helpless, of losing yourself.

As he lunged at her Tala, who hadn't been spending the last two hundred years sitting idly by, flung her hands out focusing on the sorrow and amplified it and because she was being rushed she put no limit on the effect, giving him the brunt of her powers.

If having never seen a small child building a castle of sand, a magnificent beautiful creation, until the noon tide rushes forward and obliterates it, it would be nearly impossible to describe the effect that Tala's powers had on the human psyche.

When she'd been young, she'd hurt many people with not only her purposeful influence, but the effect it left after. The mind was the most fragile instrument in the world, and creating any kind of influence on it left a mark no matter how small.

The man in mid lunge had frozen, his knife just an inch from Tala's sternum, his hand quivering as he began to crumble underneath the weight of Tala's influence. Tears began to stream from deep azul eyes, flooding a face that although stubborn and handsome now turned up into a mask of pain which now resembled the mask of Greek tragedy.

Dropping the knife he fell to his knees reaching up with both hands taking his head into his palms, his mouth opening to let a wail that resembled those from the industrial revolution labelled 'the workhouse howl'. His body shook violently as he continued to howl, hot tears now reaching his collar as his cries brought foam and spittle flying from his mouth.

Tala, without missing a beat, kept her influence on the man while pulling a thread of her power from within her self, sending it out to snake through the entire museum planting the need for home in each person until she felt each mind fold. After a few minutes, Tala and the man remained the only two within nearly a half mile.

Scuttling back a few yards, Tala lowered her hands pulling her influence back, and as her synthetic emotions left the man he gave a gasp as if able to breathe for the first time.

The man collapsed, but tried to regain his posture instantly, his mind laboring to regain semblance of reality and being unable to he collapsed again to his knees.

In his episode the ball cap he'd worn had fallen off, his shaggy hair surrounding high cheek bones and obscured wild eyes as he lifted his head on a weak neck trying to focus on her.

Guilty for causing such damage to an already flailing human, Tala lifted a hand to lay a calm upon him, but with her movements, like a wounded beast the man lunged sideways again reaching for the blade he'd dropped in an attempt to arm himself against an invisible attack.

"Will you please, just STOP for one second!" Tala screamed through gritted teeth as she again threw her arms up sending the calm out in a sense of rope to grip around his neck and head, tightening her influence until his arms dropped and he sagged completely to land on his backside hard, his face blank and empty.

Angry at herself for letting this happen, for not having enough sense at a few hundred years to not run up on someone who had such raw emotions, Tala again reigned her powers back in, before holding her hands up in a mere show of truce.

"I do not want to hurt you, I'm sorry I ran up on you. Give me a moment to explain and clear this up." She spoke crisply, her slight accent curling a few words, but enunciated each word as to be understood.

Tala stayed far back as he again began to collect the pieces of his mind, his eyes slowly losing the haze of her influence and regaining the ability to focus as his head still swung on weakened shoulders. His mouth opened and closed resembling a fish for a moment before rasping with a medium toned voice, heavy with confusion.

"Who are you?"

A fair question, and one that she instantly felt was harder to answer than face value. Glancing to what was now to her right, where the images of the man cowed before her stood tall, Tala felt torn.

She doubted lying to this man would get her very far, but as they say old habits die hard, and this habit was one only her own people had the privilege to know.

As she thought to herself, her would be assailant came into his own rather quickly, sitting up straight holding his hands in front of himself opening and closing his hands, blinking rapidly.

She heard the metal clicks of machinery moving into place which brought her focus back just as the man in question was using his hands to help him regain footing.

Without thinking Tala took a step back and held a hand up in warning which had the man lifting one of his own hands.

"Don't." There was no please uttered with the command but it was implied as his eyes and his radiating emotions edged with a bit of desperation.

She had seen that look many times, even from her own father, and with it she slowly nodded but kept her hand up, because although she understood this man had tried to attack her unannounced.

He took the few moments of silent understanding between them to roll his shoulders, delivery a few more clicks, and she realized the hand he held up was covered in some type of metal. He took a deep breath, standing at his full height of nearly six four, nearly six inches taller than her own height.

Swallowing softly, Tala attempted a small smile trying to put the larger man at ease.

"My name is Tala."

The man's face remained stoic, his jaw locked and his emotions shifted letting her know his extreme suspicion and a tinge of disbelief that he'd been bested by the likes of her. His eyes darted throughout the empty room before pinning her with a glare.

"Your powers. How do they work?"

"I'm a bit old fashioned, geez looking at that-" Tala motioned towards his image on the wall. "I'd thought you'd be as well, so excuse me if I ask for your name before I spill all my deep dark secrets."

Amusement, like a javelin thrown through the thick air of tension and angst ruptured from the dark man.

"You followed me. I get to ask questions."

Tala stared at him hard before visibly huffing, shaking her head and made a show of turning towards the exhibit finding the plaque below the well-kept and shaven version.

"Okay, James Buchanan Bucky Barnes. This isn't really the place to be snippy now." If looks could kill, she'd be six feet under as the newly named James shifted from one foot to the other before leaning down to gather his hat shoving it onto his head be damned that his hair still remained in his face.

"This place is cleared."

Tala simply nodded, raising her hands together now and waved her fingers sarcastically.

"Self-preservation isn't something you're familiar with."

Continuing her trend, Tala simply shrugged her shoulders and stripped her hands of the gloves she wore stuffing them in a pocket of her hoodie.

Desire.

James didn't have to glance any which way for Tala to know exactly what he was thinking. With the change in his emotions, the tension in the air fled, at least for Tala. A man with a sexual hunger, was still just a man. If he felt nothing but the emotions that had nearly taken her down for the count to begin with, he'd be completely dangerous.

No, he was human. Hurting, exhausted, but still human. He needed to be reminded was all, and as a healer Tala couldn't bring herself to be the type of person that she'd hated for centuries: a condemner of innocents.

Tala took a few slow steps towards James, extending her hand in a gesture of welcome and introduction.

"Again, my name is Tala Sagoyewatha, and I am an empath." James entire being was rigid with the uncomfortable sensation of awkwardness. He'd not met anyone formally in so long, his manners felt dusted, and his mind still clouded with not only the workings of Hydra, but also from this woman's control that if he'd been a lesser man would have left him terrified.

She'd levelled him with nothing but a raised hand and a thought.

James Buchanan Barnes hadn't been bested… ever. He'd battled and retreated out of necessity, but never overcome in combat.

Even now on the precipice of complete mental exhaustion, from his findings here of a past life where he'd been… a hero and from not having stopped moving in the past few weeks, he felt her power bleed into her every movement.

He'd felt her power come in the room like an ice dunk, and even now he stood on uneven ground.

He couldn't bring himself to take her hand if his life depended on it, and with the amount of power she held, it might very well.

Tala knew he wasn't going to take her hand the moment he'd made his decision and lowered it, offering a smile instead.

"If I had hand puppets I'm betting it'd be more exciting, a little more gasp worthy and awe inspiring but you know, I left those at home this once.." Shrugging Tala shifted her weight before stepping back motioning with her chin towards his memorial.

"You are looking mighty fine for an old geezer, what's your secret? No, wait let me guess… Neutrogena?"

She's insane, Bucky thought as the woman began to speak plainly any hint of her true emotions hidden as she spoke to him as if everything was normal between them. As if she hadn't sent him into a depression for a few moments, and he hadn't drawn a blade on her because she'd seen the fact that his portrait was in an exhibit for World War II.

Bucky leaned down to gather his weapon, holding his other hand up as a sign of truce in case she viewed his actions preemptive of an attack and sent him reeling once more.

Tala was almost positive it was foolish to let him to get his knife back but she'd already felt the calm he felt at having several more within his reach, so didn't feel any more fear than was already there.

She had no idea what to do in this situation, she followed out of pure instinct as an empath, letting his emotions hijack her mind and she'd followed like a calf for milk.

Now, now she'd found James, showing characteristics of an immortal and with the mental agony she'd seen in… well none as severe ever as this man.

Her very soul reached to soothe the pain it felt, and her mind wanted answers, and a small sliver of hope found the idea of having a familiar in eons comforting.

Standing to rights, Bucky held the knife as if contemplating using its edge before opening his coat to stash it back into its previous home. Closing the lapel back into place, Bucky sighed and took the few steps towards the woman, his guilt creep up slowly making him feel unworthy of speaking to this woman who seemed for all her powers, innocent.

She spoke to him as an equal, as a person who hadn't done unspeakable acts.

As a human being.

Offering his right hand, keeping his other arm back wishing to meet the woman as Bucky, and not the Winter Soldier. He'd never been so quick to place a small lapse in his guard, but seeing as this woman had done what no one else could in mere seconds he felt it unnecessary to worry if she'd attack. If she wished it, there was nothing he could do. He'd been a trained soldier, and he could access a threat and situation better than anyone.

"Bucky."

The smile that burst forth from the brunette lit her entire face to her very eyes, making them shine like beacons of clear Caribbean water. She instantly took his hand into her own, her palm calloused and warm, as she began to shake his arm vigourously.

"A man of many words!"

His guilt was sending tendrils into the calm he represented, but the little bursts of amusement kept Tala focused, kept from being drawn into the misery waiting at his center. She was already prying enough, if she meant to help this soul, she'd need to earn trust and forcing him to explain emotions that were buried didn't do anything towards that goal.

Opening her mouth to treat him with a joke she'd heard nearly twenty years earlier about a quiet man and a dog, she was cut off by a small canister spewing a white fog rolling into their vicinity from the door she'd entered from.

Bucky cursed and with his enhanced reflexes immediately turned sprinting towards emergency exit fully anticipating the armed men waiting on the other side.

Tala felt her eyes immediately begin to water and her throat constrict as the room became a complete white out within moments. She dropped to the floor in an attempt to reach fresh air, her mind convincing her of rising gases, and found no safety from the blinding gas. Closing her eyes, finding no use in them now, she probed with her range finding over four score of men surrounding the once empty building.

Generally she'd had felt the angst and fear they'd all exuded, but had let herself become wrapped in James Buchanan Bucky Barnes.

Coughing, as her mind from its lack of oxygen began to panic, she felt all the men in positions to cut off all escape routes, all but a few as the beacon her mind had set on fought through a section of them.

Attempting to stand or crawl towards the area being cleared by Bucky, she felt her limbs tremble and with no effort what so ever, her muscles simply wouldn't carry her.

Tala hadn't been in the middle of chaos like this since her last battle for the liberation of her people, and just as that last time, she felt her powers bubble beneath her skin ready to distribute her panic to save her from the fear it brought.

With what felt like the last small wheezing breath for an eternity, Tala spread her hands palm down just as a battalion of men reeking of fear rushed the room.

Bucky felt the moment the woman he'd left behind unfurled her talons, a nearly tangible net falling all around him as all the men he'd been fighting dropped with screams of doomed men. Each man jerking and foaming at the mouth as if mass seizures had over taken them all.

All of them except him.

It was the quickest mass attack he'd ever seen as each and every one of the tactical team lost consciousness within the span of thirty seconds leaving the areas surrounding him ghostly quiet.

The screams echoed in the stillness as Tala lost consciousness for the second time in her entire long life.

Fishing within the passed out bodies Bucky pilfered two hand guns, a few canisters, and a wallet off of one of the men before scooping his cap back up. Checking the area if the cost was clear, Bucky's feet suddenly wouldn't move.

The woman hadn't come out of the building.

Leave her, take this chance and run.

Glancing to the open door behind him where he'd burst through, where Tala the only person to treat him like a human since he'd become this thing, newly named Bucky felt his emotions surge and indecision reign.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what we are thinking, I cannot stress how even the smallest message makes my day!
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> -G.


	3. Dose

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Take a listen to the song 'Hello/Lacrimosa' by The Piano Guys as you read through this latest chapter, I promise you'll adore it.
> 
> -g.

The dull hum of chatter and the fizzing of electrical lines made up the underlying clamor, the pitter patter of shoes squeaking against tiles, an intercom mumbling gibberish, and a song played off from a street performer a bit off which the rest of the noise seemed to compliment made up the first sense of reality Tala regained.

Her throat burned as if she'd just taken a large swig of Fireball, a cinnamon liquor, and gave a soft cough which increased the pain for a moment before clearing her lungs to breathe a bit smoother.

Tala took a deep breath, filling her lungs until capacity, the oxygen slowly reaching her arteries and blood vessels seemingly filling her deflated skin bringing her back into her own body.

Her palms itched and felt tender as she opened and closed her hands softly, her back lay against a hard surface warm from her own body heat signally she'd been there for some time now.

With a few more breaths her mind began to clear out of the fog that had made her pass out. That's what had happened, she had passed out.

Slowly as if an old time movie, slides presented themselves within her mind showing her collapse, her chase of a man, a rushing blade, and a hand being given to her. A jawline and dark crystal eyes glared at her, as fog filled her minds vision again.

The last slide was of both hands sending a large shock wave throughout the ground towards all the heart beats she felt of pain, the pain she'd felt when her father had passed cursing her and their gods. Only one mind she left untouched, using the last bit of flailing consciousness to create the hole in the grid of her power to give Bucky a chance to escape whoever was attacking them.

She could have easily used that last ounce to force one of the masked men to be drowned in guilt and plant a purpose of righteousness to take her away, save her.

Tala had ever been the one for self-sacrifice, ever a martyr.

Her head rested on cloth, a hard surface underneath that, as her eyes slowly opened a dimly lit face of Bucky Barnes watched her with a calm annoyance flowing beneath his skin, his eyes flickering over the points of her face assessing her as she awoke.

Tala glanced from side to side, taking in the underground area filled with many people and the signs above her.

Foggy Bottom.

What an appropriate subway station, Tala thought with a hint of humor as she turned her vision back to the man hoovering above him as in the back of her mind she accepted she was laying out on a bench, her head in his lap.

Bucky's ball cap was pulled low, one arm thrown across the top of the bench in a show of relaxation. His other with his hand in a pocket where from his emotions of security she knew he held a hand gun ready for anyone to make any sudden movements towards them.

She had to give him credit, to the common passerby they would look like a young couple taking a rest and not like two people who'd just escaped a mass attack and were hiding.

"Took you long enough. You should be dead." His tone was matter a fact as he again scanned the passing crowd before looking down at her an eye brow lifted, his mouth a thin line of annoyance.

Tala couldn't help herself and again smiled at the rigid Bucky raising her hands to touch her head checking if her hair had descended into knots in the time shed been knocked out.

"Maybe. Was I heavy?"

"Like a passed out moose."

"Oh, goodie. To think I thought you've had trouble while I was out." Her lower limbs came to finally and Tala found herself hesitating as a soft thrum of yearning trickled off Bucky his eyes watching her hands as she flattened her curls against her head winding her hands through the strands as much as she could without expressly touching his lap.

Bucky had been fighting against himself for the better part of two hours, his training and solider etiquette screaming at him to leave the woman on the platform and get the hell out of dodge. He'd done his good deed for the woman, he'd pulled her from amongst the bodies of passed out mercenaries and had carried her quickly through countless streets before selecting the subway station whose lines would lead them out of the city quickest if needing to move in a moment's notice.

The things that stopped him from moving were ones he'd tried not to dwell on as they passed through his thoughts in whispers.

He had known even from his time with Hydra that there were many people throughout the world with special abilities, and although they hadn't possessed an exact list, if needed for a specific reason he'd been tasked to track them down for his keepers.

Had they known of Tala and her powers… Bucky felt the pricks of anger and a wave of guilt wash over his body making him even more rigid if possible at the reality that as the Winter Solider, he would have dragged this woman by the very hair she finger combed into the grips of Hydra.

As Bucky, he stayed guard as she'd slept refusing to leave her as scared and confused as he had always after waking with no memory of what had passed while out.

Her hands continued to work their way through her hair, and Bucky suddenly couldn't think of his own self-hatred as her knuckles bent, her finger nails cut to a medium length and clean.

Bucky had never before looked at a woman's hands as erotic, and yet for the second time now seeing her fingers uncovered by her silly pink gloves, He'd felt true desire to feel them against his cheek, against any and all parts of him really…

Tala nearly bolted up from her protector's lap as his emotions of yearning turned to lust, reminiscent of deep chello's music sliding against her psyche. Although breathtaking, it left chill, and Tala needed none of that for the moment.

Bucky grunted as her hand grabbed his thigh in an attempt to push herself up, and Tala couldn't help but laugh suddenly and merrily at the stupidity of the scenario.

Turning towards Bucky, Tala now sitting up, her bottom against his thigh, her legs now tucked crisscrossed around one another, she demanded lightly.

"I'm not blaming you for your emotions, but if you are going to be around me, just know there is no hiding them from me. If you're feelin' it, I'm getting a dose of it to." Bucky's cheeks went a shade darker, which if Tala didn't feel his embarrassment, it would have been easily missed underneath his stubble.

Laying her lips on Bucky was easily done as his mind turned to the fumbling emotion of indecision, and she simply made his mind up for her.

It was quick. Tala wasn't blind, and a virgin she was not. Prude was another word she was not.

In her time, woman from her tribe were more often than not, topless with many beads and hand punctured tattoos adorning their skin. Only because her father had been so integrated into the white man's culture had she grown accustomed to being clothed but had never felt uncomfortable around the former.

His top lip formed a perfect ribbon, although thinner than most lips, but his bottom lip was plump in a perpetual pout and Tala ran her tongue across it delighting at the taste as a shiver ran down Bucky's spine.

A tremble in his hand that he'd brought up to cup her jaw line brought Tala to reality as she finished her nibbling on his lower lip to pull away very slowly as to not offend or wound his pride.

Bucky didn't move his hand from Tala's face, as the street performer he'd been listening to for the last hour was joined by another instrument player filling the area with a euphoric joint melody. Her skin was warm, and pulsed beneath his fingers like sunshine heated the sand on a shore.

He felt a center of calm as he looked at her and sharply fought it. He could not tell if it was Tala's powers once again, and didn't dare trust it. He hadn't been calm ever since he'd been woken by Hydra after they'd begun their experiments with him.

"If it was me there Buck, I'd tell you. I don't play with others unless asked first." Winking at him, Tala turned her body, placing her legs on the floor standing up stiffly her muscles giving a cry of protest.

Raising her arms above her head and standing on her tip toes, Tala gave a squeak as she felt her inner mental wall solidify once more with her full consciousness. With it she shut off all the fluxing auras leaving her exhausted and nearly depleted power center to rest.

Bucky stood awkward, his bionic arm seemingly tucked behind his side as his other hand fumbled with his baseball cap.

"It was… nice meeting you." Bucky's words were forced and awkward as he shifted his legs to situate better within his jeans, as Tala wheeled around to face him a look of confusion present on her dark brows.

"Oh, are we saying goodbye now?"

"I need to go. Those men, they'll be back."

"I figured as much. GI Joe's been found out hu?" The joke seemed to be lost on the taller man as he set his mouth in a thin line glancing behind at the two artists continuing to play the instrumental ballad, a train faintly coming in the distance.

Tala, unsure of her next words glanced down at her clothing noticing her gloves had fallen out of her pocket in the chaos, her earphones and iPod as well as she patted herself to check.

She'd been tasked over the centuries with guiding her people, working nearly tirelessly to aid in the constant battle of depression and pain that plagued the natives of lands conquered by men in the name of religion, conquest, war.

This man, she felt had been a victim of all, and for once she didn't want to be tasked and called to arms.

Tala wanted to choose him, and felt that she'd been placed in the right place and time by something bigger than herself to do so.

"You could run, I'm sensing you've been good at that. I can go into more detail later but my powers… they were a gift to save my people. That's what I do, I can help with what you are going through. I don't mean to sound self-righteous or as if I'm pitying you. There was a reason I followed you. Your emotions, your mind to my minds vision is a thicket, so tangled and knotted around a core of memories blurred of everything but the emotions attached to them. I don't know what you've been through, Hell I don't think you are aware of it yourself. I can help you make sense of it, I can help you untangle that mess and bring it under your skin again."

Her words were filled with such conviction, Bucky felt momentarily reverence for the raw emotion behind them.

Bucky stared at her hard, his mind racing a hundred yards a minute. His entire objective coming to the museum was to see first-hand who he'd been before a monster. Whom he'd been to Captain America, to Steve Rogers. He'd known his face, and it had hit home when he'd spoken a name he didn't quite remember.

Now he knew the small portion of what he'd been while still human. He'd been a hero, but even as he'd read the words, he couldn't place himself in any of the moments the exhibit had spoken of.

To remember the man before the beast, was what his ragged and tired soul wished for above all else now.

But, although he wanted information more than anything, the part of him that was Bucky Barnes couldn't risk putting Tala in danger.

"They will find me, and you'll get hurt eventually. You are strong, stronger than anyone I've ever seen but today was just a taste of what they'll bring to find and kill me. They won't care if you haven't done anything. They'll kill you, or worse they'll take you study you like a lab rat. They'll cage you…" His anger surging on his own last words, the thought of this beautiful woman being a toy as he'd been was nearly unbearable.

She was a pure soul in a world full of shit and evil, and although he'd only seen just a few hours of her being, in that time she'd been a force of good.

That above all else was worth protecting, even if it meant costing him the chance to regain his memories.

With this words, Tala's face suddenly broke out in a grin that reminded him of the old Cheshire cat from the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland his mother had read to him.

A memory, he remembered his mother. He couldn't recall her face or anything else but he remembered her voice as she read to him of a cat speaking in riddles to a lost girl.

Overwhelmed with choking thoughts, he hardly registered Tala as she spoke with smug satisfaction in her voice until she moved to slide her hand into his bionic one with no hesitation what so ever as she tugged him along behind her.

"If that is your only worry, you have quite a bit to learn about my culture. Ever heard stories of Native American's disappearing and appearing like ghosts in the forests? Do I have some tricks to show you."


	4. Shadows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This past few weeks have been very hard for me. My cousin, who I was very close to passed away, and my own Siberian Husky, Koda passed away as well.
> 
> I apologize for the wait, and I apologize if you feel like it's not any good.
> 
> I am trying to get back into the swing of writing again, and I promise it will get better quickly.
> 
> Thank you for sticking around,
> 
> And listen to These Streets by Bastille for this chapter,
> 
> -G.

As they'd backtracked towards the very area Bucky had just saved them from, Tala watched as the calm he'd felt momentarily evaporated.

Although she'd mentally shut her powers down in an attempt to recharge from her overuse, they weren't needed as James shoulder became stiff and his back straight. His head swiveled on his shoulders in a pattern reminiscent of a submarine echoing for enemy ships, eyes looking each and every one person for a threat.

Tala, who usually walked with a small guard up, had never felt so insufficient before. If this is what he'd been brought to with being hunted, then she'd been hardly aware of her surroundings at all.

She did take the opportunity as his thoughts seemed to preoccupy his scrutiny to watch his moves, walking a pace behind him.

His body wasn't huge, like a body builder but the loose clothes he wore did nothing to cover the definition of his arms, chest, and even stomach. His jacket was unzipped, and whenever he turned ever so slightly to glance back at her, his t-shirt pulled against his abs giving her a quick side profile of muscles that made her own stomach tight.

Although he looked grungy, he was all together very clean, and held himself with all the years of training she'd expected him to have gone through.

All in all, he was a man comfortable with being a threat. He looked like he was unused to looking for the big bad over his shoulder, and that put her on edge if only slightly.

She knew nothing of his story, and relied heavily on her own powers to find solid ground in her assumption of his character. Something was coming for him, and quite possibly her now by extension, and reality of the situation was that she had no idea why.

Tala shook her head in the visage of a dog, throwing her unsure thoughts out, because she of all people knew that she needed to trust in herself fully or she'd bring what she feared to fruition.

There were only two reasons anyone did anything; fear and love. Both could come into play at once, but one or the other, it never changed.

She'd seen this man for who he was now, the type of man who reacted in fear with someone at his back, and love when needed for safety. He was human, and although his past may show her otherwise, she owed it to him to be subjective and open if only because he'd shown her his compassion when he'd been shown none.

Tala sucked the air between her teeth when a bike suddenly burst out from between the traffic to the right of them, streaking past them with screaming gears and tires.

Bucky fluidly stepped back out of the way, his arm held out to catch her across the chest. His hand grasped her right shoulder backwards, and pushed her softly to be completely behind him. He stood stoic for a few moments, his shoulders moving up and down slowly as he attempted to bring himself back under control.

Bucky filled his lungs and felt like an idiot. A fucking bike, and he reacted like it was a damn attack. His adrenaline peeked with each moment and he felt the rage that had kept him nearly blinded while on missions for Hydra begin to burn at the base of his brain.

He fought against the intrusion this moment, having let it completely run wild when they'd been ambushed at the museum, but wanted to stay calm in small instances like this.

Bucky wanted to stay normal, he needed to learn, and he didn't want to scare Tala.

He mind still felt fragile with the small revelation of a childhood book to his minds eye, and although it frightened him, he wanted more. He couldn't have walked away from Tala after his memory resurfacing, no matter what he'd felt about safety. Thankfully she'd made her own decision, and she'd explained to him in easy terms the quickest route to her home after they'd taken the train back towards the museum.

They'd gotten off the platform before her usual route after he'd explained to her that it was close enough to the museum that it would most likely be watched. He was almost positive the one they'd exited was also being watched, but she'd assured him that at this level in the game, they'd most likely still be looking for him by himself, and he begrudgingly agreed.

Although she'd been on their radar as a civilian within the museum, Bucky was almost positive that it would take the mercenaries quite some time to put together that the woman had been anything other than a civilian, if they ever did.

Hell, they might convince themselves that he'd somehow done whatever had happened, and that she'd woken before them and run off.

It made him antsy as hell to return so close to the area they'd escaped, and the remnants of the battle between Hydra and Captain America.

Most of the damage had been cleaned up by now, but Bucky felt like it had been only hours before.

Tala reached with a hand ever so slowly to rest softly on James shoulder, leaning closer to rest her chin against his back, unable to reach his shoulder even on her tip toes.

"We're around this corner, might want to get a move on?"

It was a gentle prod but got the man moving again, not before he rolled his shoulder, forcing her hand off, and his immediate movement to drop her chin off.

Tala rolled her eyes and continued to follow, slightly annoyed at the action, never understanding why when others knew she had felt their emotions, tried to act the opposite of what she knew to be true.

Making a quick left, six individual buildings facing inward with a common gate came into view.

Her townhouse lay on the right side of the six, a pool in the middle of them all, and a small office which made up the managers post made up the complex she lived.

She'd been asked many times by her own people why she stayed in DC in a small home, when she could be anywhere in something much nicer and with land.

The truth of it was she could never venture to far from her father's resting place, and in all other honesty, why go somewhere else, in a bigger home? She was by herself, and even then she'd left often enough where home was nearly negligible.

Taking the lead, Tala pushed open the main gate, which lead into the small office. Unfortunately the manager, an older woman with ruby cheeks, and a bad case of envy, was in.

She flashed an insincere smile towards Tala before fear entered her gaze when looking at James who followed close behind. He walked half turned watching the door close behind them, and didn't even bother to acknowledge the woman.

Tala smiled as well, and produced her keys from her pocket, where they had thankfully held on for dear life. Opening the inner door which lead to the middle area between all the townhouses, Tala held it open for James to continue.

He finally glanced at the old woman, assessed her, found her to be a minimal threat, and turned his back on her exiting to find himself in a large area littered with many potted trees and green surrounding a local pool area.

The door clicked shut behind him, and Tala made no move, instead offering a hand to him and a crooked smile.

"So, just a pre warning before I give up which is m-"

"You mean it isn't the one with the traditional Indian artifact on the stoop?"

Tala raised her eyebrows in surprise and glanced at her porch to sure enough find her mother's cradle board resting against her mailbox, which was also adorned with a small pouch and feather charm.

Scoffing slightly, Tala shrugged her shoulders and quipped.

"Native, not Indian. Either way, ground rules Buster. We'll get down to the grit of what happens next inside, but for now I don't think I need to threaten you. We both know what I am capable of, so if for some reason you're feeling a bit violent, how about you just don't?"

Bucky looked at her with a guarded expression as he listened to her, and when she gave a pause for him to answer, he didn't even pretend he would grace her with a reaction… at least a verbal reaction.

His eyes spoke eons, giving validity to her earlier thought as his eyes promised no violence, no anger.

"Also, before you chat our ears off there, be aware that I do have a dog. Not allergic are we?"

That caught Bucky off guard as he glanced at her with a raised eye brow, his ball cap still holding his hair in front of parts of his face.

Tala simply gave him a huge smile, and made her way to her front door, opening the top and bottom lock with ease, stepping into the front room nearly sighing in content as the spells of her people settled over her like a blanket.

Bucky followed slowly, and even in the late evening sun, the earthy tones of the décor calmed him as she opened her front door into a very open and uncluttered space. The moment he stepped through the threshold of her home, he felt a tingling sensational slowly cover him, almost like he'd stepped into the pool outside and the water was sinking into his skin. Oddly, it didn't feel intrusive, rather hesitant, as if a living breathing entity as the sensation tentatively enveloped his entire body before settling, and eventually disappearing. Although the tingling sensation was gone, he had the faint knowledge whatever it was still lingered, just past his ability to sense it.

"That was interesting…" Bucky growled it out, unsure of what to make of the event looking to Tala for an explanation.

"That just put you off the grid as long as you are in this home. Any that seek you will simply be unable to find this place in malice. Welcome to the beauty that makes up the Native culture."

Bucky stared at her, unable to simply believe in something as fantastical as magic spells, even in the dawn he lived in.

"Just like that, I'm safe from anyone who is looking for me?"

"That isn't what I said. Any that look for you with the intent to hurt you in anyway will be repelled. A spell of this magnitude is powerful but no shaman in existence has the power to hide a soul completely."

"Oh right because that would be silly…" Bucky didn't know how to believe her as he took a long look at her home.

The front room where they stood held a small hook set of wood, a long brown bench of dark oak hid several pairs of shoes underneath. Leading into her home, left a large open floor plan. A small living area past the opening from the mud room flowed into a dual dining room and large L shaped kitchen, kept separate by a marble topped island.

The walls were painted a soft shade of cream, and all the furniture in contrast were dark shades of wood, red pillows on a sand colored couch, splashes of dark green and orange candles strewn about gave the impression of a wooden area in Fall.

Tala moved into her home after hanging her keys up, and as he looked down at his feet for a moment he noticed an ash line burned into the wood flooring that marred the door entrance.

Glancing at all the doors and windows leading out, he noticed the same ash burn across the base of each one.

Taking a step further and closing her front door, Bucky found a large talisman bag wrapped with leather cord on the knob of the door.

A click of her tongue brought his attention back to the woman who'd now stripped her feet of her shoes, and hung her jacket from a wooden coat stand in the corner of her home.

She looked in extreme ease, and as he took a seat to pull his shoes off in respect of her home, almost expecting her to offer him a peace pip next, the pitter patter of paws and nails found a large lumbering white wolf coming down the wood stairs from the above level.

The beast was clearly past it's young years, grey hairs covering its muzzle constrating deeply with its snowlike fur. It's eyes as dark and still as a starless night were hooded and its tongue lolled out of its mouth, panting happily as it immediately went to Tala.

Tala had received Shadow as a gift from a family she'd assisted when a litter of pups had been born while she'd been aiding their son.

He'd been with her now for twelve years, and had been her constant companion in all things. She'd taken him on every trip, paying to have him certified a service dog so she could bring him on the plane with her rather than put the poor animal in the hold.

He had never led her wrong, and although a mixed breed with wolf, had never shown any aggression towards a human being.

Now with old age, he preferred to stay home than go for long adventures and walks with her, and it was the only reason he hadn't been with her earlier this day.

Tala scratched the animals ears softly before smiling at Bucky who sat still on her foyer bench, his combat boots sitting neatly to the side.

She suppressed a small laugh, finding him in his socks an odd sight, before motioning to Shadow towards their guest.

Shadow happily looped to Bucky who stiffened immediately as the animal placed its head right into his lap, eyes looking up to him.

"His name is Shadow… He wants you to pet his ears. He won't bite, I promise he is completely tame."

Bucky hesitantly raised his hand and after a moment's hesitation, began to pet Shadow, his fingers running through the wolf's thick soft fur.

Unable to stand the disconnect she felt with her powers shut, Tala reopened her mind's eye letting the tendrils of her awareness reach out to the man who sat quietly petting Shadow.

A darkness held firm in her guest's mind, his jaw locked in thought and uncertainty.

He was afraid.

His emotions bled fear and embarrassment like a river, unsure of what to do in such a normal setting. He'd never been invited into a home as a guest, or at least from what he could remember.

Here he sat with his shoes off, meeting her pet, as if he was a friend… or a date, come to see her home. Now he sat like a fool, with no idea what to do now, what to say. He was afraid to offend her, to do anything wrong when he was supposed to be human.

Tala made her way back to the foyer and plopped down on the floor in front of James and Shadow, crossing her legs.

Bucky stared at her, his eyes widening underneath his ball cap, which he suddenly realized he still wore inside and whipped it off his head confused at her actions.

It was impolite to keep a hat on inside someone's home, he knew better.

Do I?, His mind whispered as the inclination came from somewhere deep within him.

"Well now, since he seems comfy with you petting him there, I guess we'll talk here. Time to get to know each other Mr. Barnes."

Bucky shifted uncomfortable almost instantly with her words, the dog sitting on his hind legs oblivious to his shifting emotions intent on only continuing to be rubbed behind his ears.

Glancing into the woman's eyes, Bucky bit his lip before shaking his head slowly rasping.

"Not anything to know."

"Pig's fly. You've all sorts of stories to tell, when you feel like it of course. I'm not pushing you there darling, I'm not expecting the deep and dark anytime soon. I'm thinking more along the lines of favorite color, maybe a culture, maybe a reason you keep hiding that arm of yours, you know nothing to deep."

Bucky couldn't have tensed any more if he tried, as he glanced at his metal arm mostly covered with the jacket and gloves he wore, petting Shadow. He remained silent and refused to look at her again lest she flash him another smile he didn't know how to handle.

Tala, knowing she'd touched a nerve, bit the inside of her cheek before letting a small huff out. Wringing her hands in her lap, she smiled to no one but herself before offering to the man in front of her.

"My tribe is the Seneca and my favorite color is orange. I obtained my powers from the master deity of my people, I volunteered for the honor. I love to paint, and have many tattoos. Many of which you will have to work to see." Tala winked at him then, which nearly brought a startled surprise to Bucky's face, and the momentary surprise is what finally brought the formidable man's guard to slowly lower.

Bucky swallowed nervously as the dog finally pulled away from him to find a spot next to where Tala sat, and flopped down to nearly instantly nod off. Leaving him with nothing to do with his hands, Bucky passed the hat he held in his left hand back and forth between his now free right, looking to Tala's face and eyes after plucking up his courage.

She watched him with patience and quiet expectation. Although he felt uncomfortable, in fact most likely the most uncomfortable he'd ever felt since becoming the Winter Soldier, Bucky wanted to make this work. If he tried, gave a little, then she could help. He had to try.

"I don't know what my favorite color is… and I don't know what race I am. Something white, guessing by the skin..." Tala laughed at the small joke and if Bucky were a light, he'd be beaming.

Taking a deep breath, he looked Tala square in the eyes and dropped the hat he held to the floor before stripping the glove finger by finger till it freed his hand, and pushed up the sleeve of his jacket to reveal his forearm and hand made of metal.

All cards were out on the table, and Bucky held his breath before speaking, ready for her to send him down to the floor crumbling under the weight of her power.

He expected it, he deserved it if she knew what this meant.

"And I hide it, because it will give away who I am."

Tala had seen and felt the flashes of metal, and had thought little on the actuality of it. Hell she'd thought of the metal as being a part of some army arm band or bangle of some sort.

This… was no army band.

James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes was the man she'd seen on countless news reels in the past weeks, with speculations that had run wild.

The Winter Solider, the killer of nations.


	5. Chapter Five: Absolem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what we're thinking,
> 
> Listen to Bravado by Lorde for this chapter.
> 
> -g.

Tala took her trade mark three breaths, as the fear and self-loathing Bucky felt amplified with each moment she didn't react to his words or her own revelation.

She tamped her own emotions down as to not influence the man in front of her, and to bring herself back to her calm even state of mind.

Trusting any form of media was the kiss of death, without proper research she didn't know anything of the true story behind what James was, or wasn't.

She had heard the reports on a mysterious figure that had been the semi-quasi rival to Captain America, facilitating the master plan of an evil organization. Each report she'd heard had become more and more far-fetched bringing thoughts of Captain America being the true villain, of the so dubbed 'Winter Soldier' being the mask for Iron Man considering one of the only tid bits they knew of the villain himself was a bio-mechanical arm.

She also knew that whatever this faceless villain had been painted as, the face he held was that of Steve Roger's best friend and a hero. No mention of a metal arm was made in the memorial for James, although a death date had been provided.

Whatever had happened within the date of his 'death' and the events that had taken place a few weeks ago, that was what found this version of the man before her.

Suffering, and angry.

Of what she knew, she found a wounded soul only reacting out of self-preservation when threatened, and taking the role of protector when he'd had no obligation to do so.

He'd felt all the emotions of a soul sick human being, not a ruthless killer as he'd been spoken of.

Ruthless spoke of no conscious, and no man who felt guilt was no such thing.

Tala refused to react as James expected her to, already prepping his mind for the disgust and fear he expected from her.

Instead she reached towards Shadow, running a hand through the thick fur of her companion her focus and eyed refusing to flinch away from the dramatic show made by James.

"And who are you today?"

The question floored Bucky as he leaned back against the wall, staring at her in disbelief. He had absolutely no idea how to react now. Anger and attacks he could understand, he would know how to react after so much ingrained training. He'd come for this reason true, to find out who he truly was, but he hadn't put much thought into the reality that what he'd become while under the control of Hydra was also a part of himself now.

Just because he now had a potential different life, it didn't change what he'd done.

"What do you mean?" His question was short and raspy, as he pulled his jacket sleeve down to cover his arm once again, flexing his fist as he began to pull his glove back onto his uncovered hand.

"Well, you've got a mouthful of names. James, Buchanan, Bucky, Barnes, Winter Soldier. Alliteration you have, hands down. You said and I quote 'It will give away who I am.'. So, I'm asking you, who are you?"

As Tala spoke she scooted across her floor, reaching her hands out to grasp his own as he attempted to pull on the glove to cover his metal skin. He jumped pulling his hands away in a jerking motion, but she managed to keep a grip on his hands pulling them gently back to her.

She pulled his glove off of his normal hand, and tugged the other glove before placing the pair in her lap. She hesitated to pull her hand away, her fingers warm against the silver metal that felt smooth and cold.

After another moment, she let his hand go struggling for a moment with where to place her own before laying them palm up in her lap on top of his gloves.

Flexing his hands experimentally, feeling bare after having hidden his arm for the better part of three weeks, he answered her slowly with Steve in the back of his mind who called him by a name he knew nothing about till this morning.

"I'm the Winter Soldier… and I'm Bucky. I am both, but I don't remember much of one, and none of the other. Who does that make me now?"

Tala smiled as he spoke plainly with her, letting his guard that had been slowly declining since petting Shadow fall drastically. His emotions, although still frightened of the situation, shifted to one of sincere earnest. He wanted her help, no matter his disguise of aloofness, even if he didn't quite understand how.

Tala shrugged and leaned back onto her hands, her legs still crisscrossed as her knees touched his shins with her stretching movement.

"That is completely up to you, Bucky." Bucky watched her move, the scene comfortable and he couldn't understand why. He'd been with this woman just a few hours, and he now sat intent on speaking about their feelings. Feelings for heaven's sake, when he was supposed to be some sort of super soldier.

Tala yawned for a moment, glancing towards her kitchen, her stomach giving off a rumble.

"How 'bout we continue this over some sandwiches handsome?"

Tala sat with her chin resting on her balled fists watching Bucky as he held a knife with expertise as he cut the crusts off the four sandwiches he'd assembled through her direction.

As they'd moved to her kitchen, He'd begun to speak fluidly without the grunted sentences he'd given her so far.

He spoke of his reasons for heading to the Smithsonian, his need to find out what he was to Captain America. He never divulged what made him search in the first place, but Tala didn't bother to probe him for the answer. As he spoke, she used a small thread of her already stretched thin powers to search through the emotions he exuded while speaking of his intent to find information, and expanded her awareness to delve deeper into all the emotions that interconnected to the ones he held.

She'd found this ability in the first century of her life after dealing with a son of a neighboring tribe who had been dealt a vicious head blow by a trapper party that had left him with amnesia. She had sought to only ease the fright within his mind, and had fallen into the boys very soul as every instance where he'd felt fear resurfaced, and the several different emotions he'd felt within those memories came unraveled like a woven blanket coming undone.

After days of focused work, and clumsy probing, she'd pulled all the memories tied to his emotions from the clouded areas of his brain, to its front. He'd remembered his mother, and his betrothed, knew his dislike of delivering the final blow to elk, and his own name.

After that experience, she'd grown the skill with each case, and acquired the ability to stifle memories by dulling the emotions attached to it.

She could effectively alter a humans emotions on any subject with a few hours and focus after so many years of perfecting the ability.

The emotion most prevalent when Bucky spoke was confusion.

Drifting between reality and the world unfolding within Bucky's mind and her own, Tala pushed her thread into the area of his mind which held his past. His memories to her mind's eye looked like severely burned skin. Puckered, discolored, and blurred past recognition. Images so marred, as her power slipped through, she couldn't make out anything within his memories of confusion.

Choosing a particular image, and widening the thread of her power to resemble a net, Tala captured the moment and began to dig through the scarring prying to pull away the wrinkles that marred her vision, to bring fresh 'skin' so to speak to the surface.

Several minutes passed without any movement at all, Tala growing frustrated as her own mind began to buckle under the weight of the extensive power drain from her already depleted stores.

Just as the moorings of her net began to loosen, the imaginary burned envelope of the particular memory began to shed within her net, coming free in flakes to drift into the ether, harmless as it gave way beneath her power.

Snippets began to show, of a clean cut Bucky. Hair cut short and slicked back in an old military style, clean shaven and a hesitant smile. The edges of the memory still blurred, but the confusion came from the hesitant acceptance of a friend now turned legend whose likeness was being plastered to a camp wall. Past Bucky had felt a part of himself unsure and confused if this same 'Captain America' was going to be the same man with paper in his shoes and a sense of justice as large as his heart. He'd helped the kid in so many brawls, he didn't know what he was going to find when he came face to face with Steve again. A man who could kick his ass no doubt. A fellow soldier came to stand next to Bucky, chewing a cigar butt noisily before spitting the thing to the dirt before them, giving Bucky a sense of disgust at the act.

"A beacon eh? He's lily white he is." The insult meaning the soldier viewed Steve as a coward who'd never seen filth of war stuck in Bucky's craw as he turned to give the man a piece of his mind.

With the waning power, Tala had practically no control over the last tendrils of her power as her consciousness was suddenly whisked to another scarred memory, this one with a more modern feeling. As the skin flayed itself from the memory, she only caught Bucky peering out at a full room, his arms and body strapped to a chair as mechanical equipment around him gave off small rumbles. Disgust ran rampant, nearly sending Bucky's stomach into an upheaval at the thought of carrying out the bidding of the men surrounding him. His mind hurt, hurt with effort of trying to understand what he'd done since he'd been released. He'd killed someone, he'd hurt others, and as a jolt suddenly shot through his thoughts sending everything in his mind scrambling, he lost the battle against his stomach as he emptied the contents onto his chin and chest.

Tala's mind buckled under the weight of the extreme emotions running throughout the two sets of memories now reawakened within his mind, she fell through his subconscious returning to her own mind.

As sure as she knew her own name, she held no more power within her, completely tapped out for the time being.

Gasping with effort and a slight pounding in her own mind, Tala opened her eyes to find Bucky frozen. Eyes glassed over, his grip on the knife tight, his muscles tense and bulging as he stared into nothingness reliving the memories within himself.

Sweat streaked her face and as she reached up to wipe it away before it wandered into her eyes, Bucky returned to their world his wild eyes finding her instantly as he bellowed frantically.

"What did you fucking do?"

His tone was harsh and accusatory, and was instantly followed by a snarl to his left where Shadow had been taking a nap, but was now on his feet his muzzle pulled back in a snarl, teeth barred ready to attack.

Bucky jerked towards the dog holding the knife up for protection, which sent Tala into a wild movement of flinging herself between her dog and him.

"Don't." The command reminiscent of earlier in their day, instantly brought Bucky's hand down as he dropped the knife to the kitchen counter, sliding his body down her cabinetry to practically pool on the floor.

Bucky's mind felt as if something had pried its hinges from their mooring, not completely open but stretched and with it fresh memories had sprung forth flooding him with strong emotions as he saw himself as a soldier of the United States, and a slave soldier.

The impact of each small scrap had sent him reeling with its information, and as he tried to stay calm had felt Tala's influence expanding his aching mind, and had acted feral in panic.

Tala snapped her fingers to Shadow who instantly calmed and sat looking as innocent as a dove before turning back to the shambled Bucky. No fear in her stance, she moved around the island in her kitchen to move onto her knees before him, resting her bum on her heels reaching her hands to smooth against his arms as Buck sat with his back against the cabinets, his feet flat against the wood, knees high and spread apart his own hands holding onto either side of his head. His breathing was labored as he panted softly.

"I'm sorry if that caught you off guard, I didn't mean to go so deep so quickly. I was just probing and got caught up… It was an invasion of privacy, so you are totally within your own rights to be absolutely furious with me. Technically speaking, it is what you were wanting, but that is beside the point… So, it seems you've a strange and scary past darling. That was just a small taste, but I am not sure which side you play for, but no worries I'm not running for the hills yet.. You've been used Buck, and this is going to be harder than I think either of us have thou-"

"Tala, please, shut up."

Bucky softly pleaded to Tala as his raw emotions slowly began to settle, storing his older/new memories within himself to assemble with the rest of himself later. For the moment, all the revelations her intrusion had brought upon him faded with the warmth transported by the friction of her hands against his arms as she moved them in a comforting manner, his arms now uncovered in a t-shirt as his jacket hung on the rack in the corner next to her own.

She felt heavenly as chills ran throughout his body, tamping down his panic at the new memories with fresh fever.

Reaching forward with his metallic arm, Bucky caught her face once more and pulled the kneeling woman between his bent knees, to capture her lips for himself this time.

Tala clumsily fell forward as Bucky pulled her forward, twisting her body to land on her hip right at the apex of his legs, her own legs curling behind her as he kissed her hungrily.

His metal hand held her cheek tenderly as his other hand grabbed her legs behind her knees pulling her closer to his chest, cuddling her into the center of his body as he bit at her lips impatiently.

Bucky felt the tension that had ridden his back hard since he'd fled from the water's edge leaving Steve behind bleed from him as he gathered Tala into his arms. Exhaustion was hitting him like a train after the weeks he'd ran, and now with his quickly reawakening memories that this woman was bringing on in scary rapid succession.

It frightened him to his very core, and he needed to react on instinct to bring himself back together. She was absolutely breathtaking, and the kiss she'd given him in the train station had done little to negate the feelings of primal need that had existed since she'd offered her small hand to him in the damn museum.

After all this time of pain and anger, Bucky needed to feel something else. Rather than the death around him, he needed something nearer to life affirming.

Tala felt like a doll as James pulled her closer to him, his kisses although clumsy and rusty, made up in fervor and wanton as his hand moved from her face to sink into her hair, deepening his kiss as he opened his mouth slowly to run his tongue against her lower lip as if asking for permission to enter.

Opening her own mouth to match his passion, Tala let out a sigh as her tired mind shut down as endorphins flooded her being, making her skin hot and itchy.

At the back of her mind, Tala vaguely registered that the man who held her now was indeed a killer, whether by his own volition or not was still to be decided but with the way his hand now rubbed against the small of her back she could hardly think straight.

Her hair felt like silk threads against the metal that made up his arm, sending shiver throughout his body as his other hand massaged the small of her back. As she joined in the passion of the kiss, He slowly moved his hands underneath the bottom of her tank top his fingertips delighting in the feeling of her warm smooth skin.

As his fingers touched bare skin, Tala felt tingles race from each point he touched that raced throughout her burning body, to the center of her stomach.

Tala, having found sense somewhere in the back of her mind, pulled her mouth away from Bucky, her body staying wrapped within his own, unable to move even if she asked it to.

Meeting his gaze, which burned into her own, a fire dancing within his pupils which begged her, as Tala's mouth curved into a silly lilting smile.

"I think, we ought to separate now."

Her voice was low and husky as Bucky leaned forward nuzzling the small triangle a the base of her throat as he mumbled dangerously.

"You move first."

Swept up in the feeling of his tongue against her skin, Tala nearly threw her inhibitions to the very wind. The sobering thought was the flash of his own memory of killing a man that found her reluctantly detaching her body from his grip, and scuttling very inelegantly backwards away from him to sit hard on to the floor.

Bucky raised his right hand to feel his lips were Tala's nipping had swollen his bottom lip slightly, his eyes still smoldering at her watched the woman in front of him. He wanted her, she knew he was dangerous, hell she knew he'd killed, and still handled him with a fair and impartial mind.

He didn't deserve this, he hadn't earned the peace she offered, and yet as she watched him with the eyes of sea foam he yearned for it.

Minutes passed between them before Tala spoke plainly, crisscrossing her legs, leaning back on her hands as she had just before coming to the kitchen.

"I think we need to do some research, after a pair of cold showers my enigmatic darling."

"Research?" For the first time Bucky's voice was filled with a playful hint as he placed both wrists on his knees, moving his legs in an awkward manner to shift himself in his jeans, which now pinched without room.

Tala shrugged, lolling her head on her shoulders taking her three deep breaths.

"We've got memories, and we've got this magical thing called the internet. So, no more touchy… at least until we conduct some research."

With another wink from Tala, Bucky sucked in a breath, wondering if he'd signed up for a new form of torture.  
\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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	6. Chapter Six: Creature

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Listen to Bite by Troye Sivan for this chapter.
> 
> You won't regret it.
> 
> -g.

Tala touched the base of her throat, humming to herself as she picked up a small wash cloth, rubbing away at her already soaped skin.

The glass door of her shower for once wasn't covered in fog, her shower nearer to the temperature of the polar ice caps rather than the hot spring feel she usually bathed in.

It wasn't helping a damn bit, the heat that still consumed her after her little dalliance with James still burning. The cold of her shower in turn was instead causing goosebumps to erupt all over her body, making her skin even more sensitive than it had been when James had had his hands on her.

She had excused herself after they'd both pulled themselves from the floor and polished off the sandwiches in near complete silence.

Tala knew that if they spoke again, they'd either end in the same position on the floor, or in a fight. Although they hadn't fought yet, which intrigued her slightly on how it would end, she had the innate sense to know that although he'd come to her home under the intent of pulling the memories forward, he hadn't appreciated her dalliance in his mind without his consent.

Throughout his glances of heat, his eyes also held a sense of wariness. He had chewed his food slowly, his eyes wandering over her hands, and her face intermittently leaving her feeling torn between desire and guilt.

Tala had not a drop of power left within her, and it left her feeling strangely foreign in her own skin. She'd never been without a semblance of power since they'd been bestowed on her, but with weeks of constant use and the past day of frantic wasteful uses it made sense.

So, as her plate stared at her with nothing more than crumbs, she'd mumbled an explanation letting him know he was welcome to anything he'd like, and she'd be upstairs taking a shower, which he was welcome to take after she'd finished.

She'd nearly sprinted up the stairs to the second level of her home as he'd wordlessly picked her plate up for her. She entered the hallway of the second level, rushing into the last door past her guest bedroom, closing her door with a slam.

Her breathing had remained labor as she tore off her clothes in agitation and with nearly trembling hands had started the water.

Tala felt a little foolish, definitely different than she had this very morning. Had it only been this morning that she'd had an uncomplicated future?

Now she harbored a fugitive in her home, a past killer, one who had harmed others, and had done so with little else than a few sentences spoken to each other.

Had her level headed attitude finally done her in, had she completely gone mad, or did she let her damn libido speak for her? At that exact moment, Tala could recall her reasoning, only that damn he had felt good as he'd held her.

A prude, Tala was not.

She'd been with a man after her first successful hunt, at the age of fifteen. As tribe tradition had dictated after she'd brought down the first elk of her life, she was given choice over the accomplished hunters of the village to bring her into womanhood.

She'd chosen an older warrior, to the disappointment to many her own age, to teach her about her own body. The practice seemed taboo to most beings in this day and age, but had been a tradition in her own time.

He'd been gentle and calm as she had fumbled through their experience, and after they'd emerged from her quarters the next morning ( as was custom for the woman's comfort, being in her own element) she'd been held up as an eligible match in her village.

Only after a woman had been experienced and comfortable with herself was she eligible for marriage proposals, now able to lay with a husband without fear of harm.

Although her father had been offered many tributes and parcels of goods and land for her hand, her father had loved her far too much to part with her for anything less than her approval and although she had enjoyed the sensation of sex, Tala didn't find the idea of partnership appealing.

She had wanted to be a great warrior women, become legend and myth to her people, and had refused every offer for her wife hood until she'd offered herself as the gods instrument at the age of twenty four. An age that had found her referred to as an old spinster.

As she'd lived through the centuries, she found herself periodically taking lovers to stem the loneliness for another soul, satisfying the urge for a few days before disappearing once more to the humans.

She'd been concerned at first at the possibility at pregnancy and disease, unsure if there was even a chance, but had been careful and as contraception had advanced, she'd followed suit.

In this day and age, at twenty four she was still seen as a child and had more than once had to bite her tongue as even tribesman who knew her true age referred to her as such.

Now she wanted to help Bucky make sense of his confusing and hidden past and where ever it brought them, but she couldn't deny the undeniable attraction between them. It was always there, like a crackle underneath her skin for each smile and eye contact shared between them.

Tala sighed underneath the flow of her shower head her eyes closed in thought, resigning herself to the fact that a cold shower was doing nothing for her now.

As she reached for the spigot and its small lever which would divert the water to it once more, Tala nearly shrieked in alarm when the glass door on her shower came open its doorway filled with a very naked Bucky.

Tala turned quickly glaring down the smug faced Bucky, his jaw set and facial features hard. He was clearly comfortable being bare around others as he stood with each hand on either side of the door frame.

"I don't believe an invitation was offered to you for this event." Her tone was clipped as she casually crossed her arms across her chest, not bothering to fall into the trap of hysterics. Her nakedness was less alarming to her than the reality that she hadn't known he had been making his way to her, unable to feel his mind with her own.

She had never felt more vulnerable than she did now, with the inability to sense the world around her and to protect herself.

A slight tremor entered her subconscious as Bucky huffed stepping into the shower area, closing the door behind him his hands finding their way to his hips, standing with his legs spread in a wide stance.

Craving.

He was not being Bucky in this moment, as he stood before Tala with a zombielike need. He'd slammed down his inner monologue which preached to him of harassment, of predator instincts, as he'd paced throughout the length of her downstairs as he'd faintly heard the groan of pipes awakening.

He was a monster, he'd been a monster. It haunted his every movement now that she'd awakened the memory, beating against his sanity to know what he'd done.

Touching her in the moments after her intrusion had been like a cool glass of water after walking through a desert. Her presence had quelled the hate and self-loathing as he'd held her.

Christ, it was like his very mind was ripping itself apart unless her presence was close enough, and as she'd abandoned him to scuttle upstairs he'd felt her absence like a burn.

A day now, a day in her presence pulled an animal, and a human from within him. He couldn't handle both at once, as he listened to the animal within him, without remorse or conscious vaguely understanding that the Winter Solider had taken control of his psyche in these moments.

As the Winter Soldier it had found him ascending the stairs, listening to the water spray muffled by the space and doors between them. He'd opened the door to what he assumed was her room, hyper focused on the open door within where stranded clothes lead the way through.

Mechanically he'd pulled his clothes off article by article leaving them in a similar trail till he'd stood in the bathroom chest heaving as he took a deep breath with the vision of Tala underneath the stream of water falling from above.

Now he stood, a few feet between them, her stance defensive and agitated, and yet he still couldn't pull himself out of the animalistic mind set.

"I'm welcome to anything I'd like."

"Clever. I'd also like to remind you of the last time you made a move towards me I didn't like." Thankfully her bravado held strong as she kept her eyes above his waistline, refusing to be tempted… at least until she could make sense of the situation happening.

"But that was a move you didn't like, which is not the case now." His voice was low and rumbled deep from within his chest, thankfully staying still as he spoke.

Tala stared blankly at Bucky, unsure of her next move. He was correct, she'd already accepted that there was an attraction between them, but this was forcing her hand.

They were both consenting adults, but she felt a sense of foreboding as if taking up the offer before her would lead her to a path she wasn't meant to walk.

She didn't know him, all she knew of him was his past as a soldier, a killer, and her personal savior.

Bucky took the moment Tala offered in silence to appreciate her. Surprisingly, her earlier mention of tattoo's hadn't stuck in his mind, but now that he saw her bare they were vivid against her skin.

Dark lines, thick and dotted lined her chest, across the tops of her breasts, streaking down past the areas hidden now by her arms, reaching to her torso where a row of triangular tattoo's ringed her stomach, another beautiful series of lines and dotted skin framed by another triangular row to create a band that met with the dark lines from her chest.

Both thighs held similar bands, each marked with a succession of dotted skin which seemed to create a primitive portrait of a snarling wolf facing inward towards her inner thighs on each side caged by the same triangular rows.

Her skin gleamed as water continued to rush over her, the golden honey of her skin deep and tanned leaving the dark brown of the ink to melt into her skin lusciously.

The ink still looked fresh, as if it had only been done a few years ago, not centuries, and as he followed each line, he found himself staring at the center of her legs whose Apex made his mouth suddenly dry as the center of his own body stirred to life.

"You're the most beautiful creature I've ever seen."

Tala still stood stoic, as his words dripped with worship, the pupils of his blue eyes dilated and his breath suddenly short.

Calling the kettle black, Tala thought as she also appreciated the fine male specimen in front of her. His entire body was thick, and muscular, hard lines curving his stomach and chest to perfection. Scars littered his body, as well as the massive disconnect between his chest and shoulder to his metal arm. It looked as if his skin had been burned to infuse the flesh with the metal as it healed, the metal platelets that made up his arm adorned with a single red star. The muscles at his hips were prominent giving him a natural line to the center of his legs, an remarkable length nestled in dark curls that left Tala impressed.

Shifting from one foot to the other, Tala kept her arms crossed, still standing in ice cold water which heated the moment it touched her sweltering skin.

"What was the outcome you were looking for here Bucky?" The mention of his name brought his cognizance crashing back, and although he felt appalled with his actions, the static that sparked between them was overwhelming.

Tala could mend everything, he just knew.

"To be honest, when I'm touching you there is no thought of who I am. I'm just a man, a human being in your eyes."

She'd be lying if his words didn't instantly set her at ease, draining her fear from her in mere moments.

Tala had only been with lovers who knew nothing of her heritage and powers, in fact hadn't known her at all. Bucky didn't know that she was older than even him, if she were to share herself with him he'd also be the first lover she had in two hundred years where she would only be experiencing her own emotions.

Uncrossing her arms slowly to place her hands on her hips mirroring his own actions, Tala turned away from him momentarily to turn the water's heat up to warm.

In doing this, Tala felt chills spread throughout her body, a whisper of power akin to her depleted own solidifying her decision. She'd never been one to shirk at her culture or its connection with the very center of all life, and with the fading sensation of power she wasn't about to question fate now.

Moving out of the stream, Tala reached to slide her hands against the skin of Bucky's chest as her left hand traced the joining skin of his metallic arm. Not stopping until she was skin to skin with the built man, her hand tracing the cool metal until it found her arm wrapped around his neck, Tala's skin tingled with the contact.

Bucky held his breath as she slid against his skin, as hot as her skin was, the droplets of water cold forcing his nipples to pucker and his muscles to constrict tighter in anticipation.

Tala let loose a soft chuckle, the smile on her lips dazzling as she captured his lips once again wiping his mind of all pain and loss, spearing their feet to the floor as his arms clasped her to him with passion and hope.

Becoming lost within one another once more, enabling both immortals a moments reprieve from the hollow sentiments of eternity.


	7. Namesake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for the delay, I am on holidays in Europe! I am travelling for a month through Spain, Scotland, and Ireland! I apologize for the length, I will try to write as much as I can!
> 
> Listen to Neverland by Crywolf for this chapter.
> 
> As always, please let me know what you think!
> 
> -g

Bucky slid his hands down Tala's curves, his entire body igniting with each delicate touch of her skin.

She was no skin and bones, her curves full and hot, with hips wide and flared. Her waist turned in with a small rounded belly that spoke of rich eating and a happy life. Her thighs were also full, touching each other, drawing the line of her body into a lovely soft and smooth inviting picture.

Gathering her bottom in his hands, Bucky lifted her into the air as she parted her leg to wrap them around his own waist never breaking the sizzling kisses she laid on his lips.

The hair at the center of her thighs tickled the skin on his lower stomach, sending chills and heat throughout his body, making him gasp softly in pleasure.

Tala pulled away from his lips to nibble tenderly on the skin right below his ear.

As goosebumps erupted throughout his body, Bucky closed his eyes as a stray tear suddenly streaked down his slightly damp cheek, a small desperate fear in the pit of his stomach.

Bucky felt as if any moment he was going to wake up from cyro, to find these moments of peace would be fictitious.

It felt to good, to clean, to pure.

No memories or flashes running through his mind- just calm and lust.

Oh god, lust like he'd never felt or imagined before.

He was sure he'd had sex before sometime in his life as Barnes, but he'd hands down bet to his bottom dollar that she was the epitome of what a lover was supposed to be.

Willing, responsive, adoring… and they'd only just begun.

Tala sighed into the kisses she laid across Buck's neck, his unshaven face rough against her own cheek and lips leaving behind whisker burn that she relished.

He felt absolutely wonderful, and no one had ever held her as if she weighed closer to paper.

He didn't even bother to try and lean her against anything to take the brunt of her weight, he simply held her against him as the water from the shower now warm beat against her back and his hands.

Although he was predominately dry, he wasn't remaining that way as her hair and wet skin was making his own body slick.

Her mind full with only her own thoughts and emotions, her world shifted.

The heat his body gave off matched her own, and for a moment Tala wondered whether or not they'd end up burning each other up.

Digging her hand into his hair, delighting in the silk feeling that she hadn't expected, Tala ran her teeth across his neck leading down towards where his shoulder was bisected by metal wringing a deep moan from Bucky, his hands tightening on her bottom.

Tala was an adult, she knew better than most how even small decisions changed the outcome of time, and this, this felt like a definite change was going to take place. She wasn't sure what the outcome was going to be…

It seemed silly to think like that, as if one sexual encounter meant a changed destiny. It spoke of fairytales, and she'd slept with enough men to know there was no fanfare and magic after the fact, and yet she truly felt that way even now.

Bucky began to murmur sweet nothings into her ear as she continued to nibble on his throat.

His sweet words felt more erotic than even their own nakedness, as his low voice and slight accent to his words seemed to slide over her skin making her pant and gasp against him, her legs turning to jelly around his waist, the pit of her stomach tightening in an almost unbearable knot.

Bucky moved his metal arm until it was underneath Tala holding her weight against him still, as he pulled his other hand up to bury in Tala's hair tugging slightly until he saw her face once more.

Her eyes pierced him with the wanton heat that was mirrored in his own, her smiles nowhere to be seen now, jut raw want as her lips swollen from whisker burn remained slightly opened as she panted softly against him.

Moving his hand from the back of her head to cup her cheek, Bucky pulled her face gently to his own, kissing her softly, melding his lips onto her own gingerly. They'd already kissed many times before this one, but this simple kiss was enough to leave both of them adrift in their skin.

Tala ran a hand from wrapping around his neck, running her fingers down his chest past his stomach, and between her legs, continuing down until her hands felt a small trail of hair which as she continued became thicker until her hands brushed what she'd been aiming for.

Bucky opened his mouth, letting out a gasp into Tala's, refusing to pull his lips away as they both stilled.

Finding it hard to suddenly breathe as Tala's fingers hesitantly began to explore him, and with each sweep of her fingers he swelled in her hand, his breathes coming in pants as both of their mouths still remained stilled yet connected.

Tala hadn't broken eye contact with him since he'd pulled her to face him once more and his eyes held her mesmerized.

The tenderness within them was tangible, and so foreign for a creature like Tala who knew the absurdity of such an emotion between two strangers. Although his arms and hands held her, his touch was soft and tentative and made her slow her motions from there sudden evolution to that moment.

Her own emotions raged, her thoughts in comparison silent, her veins flowing with a high like calm. She could feel something else, just past her now depleted abilities.

"Tala…"

His voice low and full of gravel, Tala softly kissed his top lip, before placing her forehead against his never looking away from the deep pools that made up his eyes.

Moving her hand to position him right underneath her, Tala now let a soft smile come through, the very tip of him stiff at the center of her body as she pulled her hand away to once again wrap her arm around his shoulders.

His hand on her cheek, warm and striking, quivered just barely as Bucky held his breath in for a moment his eyes taking in her every feature, engraving her face to his memory in hopes that even if in the future if his memories were taken from him, he would remember her.

He would always remember Tala.

Bucky let the breath he'd held in go slowly, as he lowered Tala's body, entering her with painfully gentle speed. His thoughts, now running once more, but this time with thoughts of Tala.

He was vaguely aware that he was rushing things, she might not be ready, but with no movement or motion to stop him, he had to have her now. He had no memories of sex, of being with a woman, and he felt as if he fumbled unsure, reacting purely on instinct. He hoped with everything within him that he wasn't going to hurt her.

Foreplay was out of the question for this encounter, Tala had known that the moment she'd turned the water warm for them.

Too much angst and attraction circulated between them for this to go any slower than it already was, and as Bucky lowered her, he filled her with an almost unbearable pace, her insides contracting to accommodate him, sending throws of pleasure exploding in bursts throughout her.

Unable to stifle himself, Bucky let out a deep growl as her body took his entire length, throbbing within her as blind pleasure nearly made him lift her body again, but forced himself to stay still as a statue as the woman who surrounded him completely had stilled herself.

Tala couldn't breathe.

Her chest heaved against Bucky's, her mind flooded suddenly with images and emotions that were not her own.

Within moments she'd lost herself, she couldn't even recall her own name as her vision blurred and as if staring into a dark night sky as fireworks flew, her mind erupted in snippets.

Faces, of all ages, races, sex, erupted in the dark, terrified, smiling, loving, angry, peaceful, all variants of human kind. Accompanying the faces, were flashes of labs and ice, burning her mentally.

A rush of power, a flood burst to fill her rib cage, and whoever she was, they were being ripped apart.

It was as if a switch had been tapped, and even as Bucky had held Tala's gaze, her emerald eyes first became glazed as if she were seeing some far off time.

With no moment's notice, the iris's turned blinding white, she opened her mouth and wailed.

Her grip turned vicious, her nails digging into his skin, as her screams seemed to melt into one another.

Bucky immediately reacted in panic, using the arm that had held her face to now hold her to his body, as she went limp her screams the only action her body had left in it. With his metal arm, he gave swift punch to the glass door, shattering the plexiglass, unconcerned with his shoeless state.

Striding quickly, their body's disconnecting in his rush, moving with lighting speed to her bed.

He hesitated to let her go, panic mounting within him, unsure of the right course, and as his internal struggle mounted his felt his mind begin to shift to the state he'd lived in while he'd been the Winter Soldier.

Killer. Kill. Be Killed, follow directions. Mission report.

His muscles began to contract, tightening around Tala fighting himself, stress nearly bringing him to his knees as he fought to stay cognizant.

She was a puppet, strings attached as men tugged and ordered. Played games, pawns made up of lives. Tangled.

Then she saw herself. She remembered, as faces fell away to bring forth a young women naked adorned only by tattoos and clay. A force, taking form of a wolf so dark its fur blended with the night only given shape by its white burning eyes, trotted from deep within the forests.

She'd been awed, not afraid as she'd expected. Falling to her knees, she touched her head to the cool earth underneath her.

Ever needed, namesake. Do not falter on the eve of battle.

Different words, her quiet minds voice whispered as she watched the woman shaped like herself lift her face as the large wolf faded in and out as it moved to nuzzle her face.

Tala, Wolf.

Tala fell back into her mind and body hard, her throat burning as she coughed and gasped for breath, choking.

With light.

As the whispers filled her mind, Tala aware of herself, wheezed trying for a breath opening her eyes.

Bucky's arms held her with such force, his arms bulging, crushing her ribs and sternum leaving her lungs empty of air.

Tala tried to tell him, to warn him, but no sound came from her thrashed throat.

Terror set in, her oxygen gone with each moment.

As if a punch came from an invisible person, Bucky's head flew back, his arms wrenched apart as she dropped to the bed he was holding her above.

Falling to his knees, his arms spread eagle, Bucky grit his teeth as the now familiar sensation of Tala's power rushed over him, snapping him out of the Winter Soldier fit, but leaving him paralyzed in his absolute fear of harming her.

Tala gulped air as if it were her last breath, her lungs expanding as fresh power, as strong as the being that had bestowed a pittance on her before flooded her veins, pores to fill her very skin.

Without a thought, she released Bucky from control that she hadn't made the decision to wrap him in. It was if the power she now held, so raw and great remained unbridled and needing to be tamed.

Calm.

Bucky's arms dropped and he vaguely felt a few shards of glass in the skin of his feet, but gave it no mind as he watched the woman on the bed, his mind in shambles more than ever.

Tala sat up slowly, turning her head to look at the naked, bleeding man, wet and frightened.

Holding a hand up, a dark shimmer covered her skin, and sunk in as she watched leaving her completely calm, and with an understanding of the events that had taken place

"Tala…"

She smiled, the snow fading from her eyes, the pure emerald filling with acceptance and as Bucky spoke her name hesitantly, Tala laid back against the bed with her half smile.

"We have a lot to do."

His silence was fat with disbelief as she continued to stare to the ceiling.

"Things are going to get interesting, darling."

Bucky had no words, and watched her naked in more ways than one.


	8. Results

As Tala worked silently, sitting on the floor of her bedroom with nothing but her skin on, Bucky's foot began to heal.

She used a pair of tweezers as she gently pulled slivers of plexiglass from the man's skin, holding his calf in her arms, as each piece she pulled out his body began to repair the damage right away.

Tala's fingertips as she had worked, had turned black as if she had dipped them in tar and with each touch she gave to his bare skin, Tala felt as if her new power was communicating with the very traumatized tissue and was giving it its marching orders.

She had absolutely no grasp on the extent of her control now, and so simply took the thought with a grain of salt, and fixed the man in front of her.

Bucky felt each and every drop of Tala's power that entered his system as if it were water to a parched earth. It made his body feel as if it was an old machine that had been given new oil, and as she tenderly pulled the glass from him, he lay practically comatose on the bed as bare as she.

Hell if he knew what'd just happened, his only concern had been that he not hurt this woman, and everything went to shit as he'd expected it to.

She'd screamed as if her very soul was being ripped from her heart, and it had triggered him, and he had reacted badly.

He could hardly care now that he had nearly squeezed the life from her, allowing himself to be pulled back into the horror of Hydra, no.

All James cared for now was the way Tala's hands smoothed against his ankle as she cooed and lamented over him like some poor little puppy, caring for him.

Laying back against the silk of her bed, Bucky grinned to himself as visions of Tala bathing him, and feeding him lingered within his mind.

Tala murmured softly as she worked, her power sending Bucky into the perfect man's dream of full service from a lovely woman, finishing up quickly and gently releasing his calf and foot back to dangle from the side of her bed where he lay, high out of his mind on her influence.

It was the least she should do for him at the moment, and when he came back down, she'd explain to him just what took place.

Tala stood up, moving to sit on the bed next to Bucky's head, her legs tucked behind her as she rested on her side, one hand keeping her body up, the other she used to smooth Bucky's hair back from his forehead.

Poor James Barnes, ever caught in the crossfire.

Tala looked at him, seeing past just his calm face, because in the moment that her deity had given her its power, she'd seen his past.

Every face, from a mothers and fathers, to childhood friends, a little girl with pigtails and a broken front tooth who he kissed when he was only four. Strangers passing who'd stuck with him for some reason. Steve Rogers, the most prominent face. Women, smiling and interchangeable. Strung out army faces, full of coke and terror. Big mustaches, and dirt covered men with helmets and guns. Then masked faces, ones of torture. Faces of victims, tortured. Each of the victims shrouded in such hate and misunderstanding it was hard to make any sense of the memories without a headache.

Coming back to herself again, Tala found her face covered in tears as her eyes silently overfilled.

He had been a killer, for many reasons. Hell, even his good ones hadn't been that great, but he'd tried to do what was right in a time when things weren't. Then when the time came when everything seemed right when wrong, Tala felt her hate for men and their wars come alive.

Confused and angry, brainwashed, her James had become an assassin. He'd been to Hydra, what she'd been to her people but bred from fear and hate.

Tala could remember as if it were yesterday the battles she'd fought hand in hand with her father, attacking her enemy in red, ignoring the lives they lead.

It had taken her many years to heal from all the killing she'd done, and even now she hadn't fully.

It was the hardest thing she'd ever done, and it was going to rip Bucky apart as he came to grips with all the choices he'd made and making amends for it.

She'd be there to help sew him back up, Tala knew her purpose now more than ever.

He was going to be important in the coming of whatever new world that was on the horizon, and she was once again the harbinger of change.

Bucky slowly began to come to from his waking dreams of calm and leisure, to find one more vision. Tala smoothed his hair against his forehead, sitting above him, still blissfully naked, her facial expression calm and some emotion he couldn't make out.

Sense set in a little slower, as the previous events dawned on him, setting a rock in the pit of his stomach full of self-loathing and pain reaching its tendrils into him once more.

He'd hurt her, jesus he'd nearly killed her.

Bucky's face hardened, his jaw set, his eyes widening as his thoughts and emotions flooded into them like a self-deprecating flood.

With his return to cognizance, Tala smiled at her soldier and leaned down to peck his dry lips softly.

"Welcome back from vacation, Sunshine."

Bucky couldn't even think to sit up, as she beamed down at him.

"Are you okay?"

The words were whispered by the gruff man, who reached up with an arm to hesitantly touch her cheek above him. Leaning into his hand, Tala shrugged and made a silly little face at him having a small internal fight against the very opinionated new power which begged to influence him once more.

"Got a bit of blue balls, but that's something to take care of later."

Her joke brought no smile to Bucky, in fact it sunk his emotions deeper as he chastised himself mentally for having pushed her to try and sleep with him.

"Tala, I didn't me-"

"Stop right there Martyr! Don't even head down that road. I like sex like all women of the world, you didn't force anyone. Let's be real there, you think you could force me to do anything I didn't like? And no, you didn't bring on my seizure type occurrence. Me and you, darling, we have some talkin' we got to do about who I am now."

Bucky didn't say anything in response as he moved his hands to sit up on his elbows, accepting he was still naked, and continued to sit up on the large bed making sure to continue to face her.

He turned his body, indecision for only a moment before crossing his legs in front of him, his hands going in his lap to give him a small covering over his lap.

He had absolutely no idea what had happened, and no idea anything about her powers other than her own self admission earlier where she'd said she'd volunteered for them from a god.

A deity of some sort.

Buck didn't know if he believed in any of that, but after what had just happened, he could take the time to listen.

"Comfortable there?" Tala spoke with laughter dripping from her words because no one had never looked more uncomfortable with a beautiful naked women in the same bed as them, as James did in that moment.

He nodded solemnly and when she continued to smile in merriment, he reached over and grabbed a pillow to shove into his own lap, his eyes shifting hungrily and yet embarrassed over her own nakedness.

Tala reached over and gathered his chin in her hand making him look at her, her fingertips turning black almost instantly as she snatched them back quickly before she influenced him in anyway.

His anger was simmering underneath his skin, angry he'd let this happen and get out of control. He should already be moving, he shouldn't stay here. Be damned his memories.

Tala physically shook to get his emotions out of her head as she locked eyes with him once more and took the chance to begin as she now ran her hands along the fine linen of her bed to keep her grounded as well.

"When I was twenty four, my tribe, the Seneca lost thirty-seven women and children to an inhumane and disgusting attack by British forces. Although they had been our ally before, a young officer raped one of our young women and when caught by her son and his playmates, he and his party killed any who remained in the village while the many had gone to hunt."

Bucky listened and then stopped. Village, twenty four? British? None of it made any sense at all.

"Twenty four? You don't look older than that now."

Tala smiled sadly and nodded.

"I'm not much older now, two hundred and seventy five never looked better I can promise you."

Buck stilled. He looked, really looked at Tala, and finally stared. She was insane, she had to be. Who else would claim they'd been around for the damn war of independence?!

"You can look at me like that all you want grandpa, but I'm not busting out with an old chant no matter how much you beg. Let's pretend for a moment that you're not a hundred years old shall we?"

Her quip was solid, and made him feel sheepish but he continued to stare in bewilderment and so with no more attention paid to him, she started her story up again.

"Our hunting party returned to find only one child alive, hidden beneath his mother who'd been slain while hiding him. He accused the accented white men, crying that the gods were angry at our choice of whom to follow in this war that had raged around us, for land that was our own. My father, the chief of our tribe, called for all the Seneca chiefs to join him to decide our next course in the fate of the land."

"Why were you not in the village?"

Bucky was following her story, but his emotions ran amuck as raw awe and fear at her words reigned high.

Tala chuckled and stopped leaning on her elbow, to lay her body down on her bed, still on her side as she tugged a pillow to herself as well but only to rest her head on. She was more than comfortable being bare now, especially as she spoke of her own life before the one she lived now.

"I was one of the best hunters of our village."

Bucky held his hands up in an offended manor, which helped the calm to return as the static between them had nearly become tangible, as she smiled at his small joke.

"They came, all with their own horror stories. For a week, the leaders, not just men, fought and argued. Some wanted to attack nearby settlements and camps, to take life where life had been taken. Some wished to leave, move farther into the woods north, get lost in Mother Nature. Some wanted to turn to the mercy of the white men. Some, like my father, wanted to turn to the gods. '

Tala could see herself once more during the final decision.

She'd stood back with the medicine woman of her tribe behind her father's seat at the circle, as the leaders had squabbled once more for hours although a decision had already been made. They'd bring a sacrifice to the gods, one of them, and ask for forgiveness and help through the coming storm.

She'd been so angry, so vengeful after the deaths of her family and friends. Her cousins lay slaughtered like animals as the white men who did it laughed in forts made from the goods of her forests.

She had voted for vengeance, she'd cried out for blood, and had been just as quickly silenced by both her father and their shaman.

"You must first think, then act." The wise woman had whispered in her ear and so she listened, and thought. She'd found her father's plan to call for the beings they worshipped a sound action, rather than leading an attack into a fray with no knowledge.

When they'd decided it needed to be a woman, for many believed that in losing so much of herself through the actions of white men, nature might need a helping woman, or a paramour to some, Tala had spoken up nearly instantaneously.

"They decided to offer a woman's life, her soul to the gods in an effort to understand and have a guide indebted to them for the future. I understand how it may sound now, with all the western pom-"

"You don't have to explain your culture to me. I've seen the worst of men, and.." Bucky tilted his head towards her and a sheepish looked crossed his eyes as he reached up to grasp on of her hands in his metal one. "… the best. Go on."

The comforting gesture was a rare one, and she found herself humbled for a moment. As advancements in society had grown, as the human race as a whole became more intelligent, better resourced, and grasping for knowledge, it had never made her believe any less in the gods she held near. In fact, it only made her believe more. Not in a supreme being, westerners labelled God and Jesus which seemed to her more like pawns for the masses to use as they saw fit.

No she continued to believe in the everyday small workings, like a barren woman finding out her adoption had gone through, or a man putting a quarter in someone's meter who'd run out. Even with her own circumstance, she'd learned very quickly that the gods weren't in the event, they were in the results.

"I volunteered. I refused to be sent before our gods like some fluffed up heron either, I was rubbed down with dark clay from our earth, and was accompanied by a party of warriors to a ridge that had been used time and time again by our people to communicate and be with our makers. I was there for two days, tired, and alone, until the form of a shadowed wolf came. It came from within the dark night skys, fading in and out and when it had spoke, I had felt it to my very bones, as if they rattled within my skin. It told me 'Proven an instrument. Our people's fate, lies in your hands now namesake. With darkness.'"

Tala sighed, as Bucky pulled his hand back to himself, his unease returning as she spoke of talking wolves. For someone who had taken her powers in quite easily, the story of receiving them was giving him quite a bit if trouble.

Sliding off the bed, to stand up, Tala couldn't help but raise her voice just a little as she paced back and forth, her own feelings a little hurt at his new reaction.

"Either way, it came back just now, for the first time since I'd received my powers. I understand why, and it was just bad timing on our part really. My powers were depleted, I mean zapped. My last rendezvous inside your head, was uncontrolled and hard because I was working on my last bit of power. I've been working constantly for weeks before this with families to repair some mental damage done by others, and I just dried up. I guess that was the only time it could impart more power, when some wasn't there to combat it already because not all power can be pooled."

"I can't be sure but, it felt like it gave me everything it had. As if it's very own soul was transferred in, and it brought me back to our first encounter but this time it spoke differently."

Catching himself, Bucky took a deep breath as a slight tinge of anger in her words slowly fell away with her last revelation, and it turned to him to understand her short life's story.

It had almost felt simple when he'd run from the destruction of Hydra and his battle with Steve Rogers, a decision made by a tired soldier who didn't understand what or who he was.

The way Tala spoke, she spoke as if everything was a choice of fate. Of monumental things, and he found as she spoke more of how she became an immortal, he believed it.

"What did it say this time?"

"it said we have a battle coming, and here's the kicker: you're going to be quite the big guest."

That didn't surprise him, not in the least, especially now.

"And what about you?"

Tala stopped her pacing, to deliver a wicked smile as she held out the palms of her hands, prodding at her new power center for a thread of power, until a large rope disentangled itself from the mass and pooled into her palms. As heat spread throughout her body, her hands itched and burned almost unbearably until the black began to form at her fingertips and continued until her wrists were streaked with the growing.

"I'm just your manager champ, I go where the big money goes."

Her flippant attitude did nothing to quell Bucky as he suddenly stood and grabbed onto her hands, covering the dark skin with his own as he shook his head to Tala. He didn't know her, or her power, but this new development didn't keep him in awe like her power before. This power felt dark, and as he had watched the black coloring replace her tan skin, it had only made him feel uneasy.

"Don't."

Tala looked up to Bucky and smiled, feeling his fear towards the power within her now. She was afraid to, but for different reasons than his own.

She knew with her help he was going to triumph over his demons, she had played that part in battles for centuries, but what troubled her now was the reason that a deity would essentially drain themselves of power just to hand it off to a mere human.

Whatever was coming, was going to be an absolute nightmare and Tala knew she would find her end where ever it began.

"We've got to go somewhere darling, somewhere you might not like."


	9. Wise

James had returned to his brooding and silent self as they'd left her home behind, Shadow on a long lead that Tala gave an illusion of holding tightly.

She'd learned long ago not to leave him off the leash to long, lest people begin to have some fear and panic. He'd caused many episodes and as they walked past their first grouping of people and they moved as far from her as possible, it was self-evident.

The wolf, although well past his younger years, trotted alongside both of them quite easily sniffing only occasionally towards the few bushes along the way, both humans following quiet and unsure.

Tala needed to speak to an old friend, now especially, and although leaving the safety of her guarded home was not preferable, where they headed now was quite possibly safer than even her own place.

It was just the journey along the way that was the hard part, no matter how short it may be.

Buck watched every corner, scanned every rooftop, waiting for the imminent threat to attack. Some part of him almost wished for the attack, to take his mind off everything that had happened now.

His hunger hadn't waned a bit, and as Tala had rushed them to get dressed and be on their way, Buck nearly whimpered when she'd covered her skin with clothing. He missed the soft tan curves and tattoos nearly the instant they were covered up.

His foot was completely healed by the time she'd latched a long lead to Shadow, and so as he pulled his boots back on, the underlying feeling of panic returned to the pit of his stomach.

He'd let himself be so focused on the promises of safety and his own hunger, that he forgot the danger he was in, and by connection now Tala.

Her hands had taken a few minutes to return to their normal smooth coloring, and as Tala opened her front door, she had offered one of them to him with a wink.

The moment their palms and fingers had touched, hers began to turn black again and she'd yanked her hand back fast as a drop of excitement rushed his system like a drop of dye in a glass of water. Bucky hadn't felt excitement for so long, it was so foreign he had let out a strangled giggle, which was the most strange sound he'd ever made.

The flash of power lingered even now, and it had made Tala quiet as she offered an apologetic smile, humming a few bars of a song he'd never heard before, before taking off towards the main entrance to her complex.

Bucky had taken a few moments to compose himself and then closed her door, locking it from the inside, following behind her as he set his shoulders pulling on his ballcap once more and a pair of sunglasses she'd offered him.

They were similar to an aviator style, and so didn't look to odd on his face, he walked next to the woman once again wearing her own boots and hoodie feeling like they were making a very large mistake.

She hadn't told him any more of where they might be heading, and he hadn't asked. Now she took them through the smaller back streets of D.C., as she barreled on ahead with no real notice to her surroundings.

James on the other hand watched each face, every corner, and every building top for an enemy, and wished he could stop. The panic of training kept him on edge, and he wished for one of the first times that he had never been a soldier.

Maybe then he could walk down the street, with a woman and her dog and just think of how beautiful she was, and make some type of plans for a future.

If he'd never been a soldier, he'd never be here to have those thoughts to begin with.

"What are we looking for?"

Bucky couldn't stand the silence any longer, he'd either drive himself mad with his lust or he'd drive himself made with his own thoughts of safety.

Tala glanced behind her shoulder at her soldier and grinned. She flicked a finger towards a small shoppe, a set of boar tusks wedged into the mantle of the door, white panels of lace covering the large bay window beside it till obscurity.

Just as she motioned, Shadow's tail began to wag happily and the door opened to show an old woman with skin the color and texture of old leather.

Well past her eighties, this woman looked closer to a bag of bones, small and delicate with each movement as white and grey hair set atop her head in a pinned bun.

Even with her age, the woman's face lit up in friendship with a large toothy smile, as did Tala who moved forward in a quick rush her hands out and offered to the woman who took them with a firm grip.

"You haven't aged a day since I've seen you last Pearl." Friendship oozed between them, and as the old woman gave off a merry little laugh, Bucky realized there was no reverence for elders in Tala.

If there was the ghost of such a feeling, it was the older looking woman who held it towards Tala herself, and it again unnerved him to think that Tala's words were similar to truth now more than ever.

"And you have become a liar." Both women chuckled, until the old woman suddenly turned her vision on him and he felt it like a rope, trying him to the floor keeping him still.

Although her eyes held small milky spots, telling of cataracts, the woman watched him with such strength in her gaze that he had no doubt she could see him perfectly.

"You've found a relic." Pearl's voice reminded him of the winds you heard coming through the trees on a stormy night, strong and with purpose.

"Not quite, but close."

"He was young, when I first drew breath."

Buck glanced only momentarily towards Tala, hands still grasped within Pearls, who gave him a reassuring smile, and he didn't even bother to question how she could tell his true age.

"Pearl, dirt was young when you first drew breath."

The cackle that came from the elder woman was jarring as she pulled one hand from Tala to offer towards James.

She held no walker, or cane and Bucky didn't even bother to hesitate. Hell, he was almost positive he couldn't have even if he had wanted to.

Taking her hand in his own, Bucky felt the warm breeze of power that felt familiar to that of Tala's.

Old and calm.

"Come inside now all, within safety. "

Still hand in hand, Tala and Bucky followed Pearl within her shoppe, the same water like sensation flowing over him as he crossed her threshold as had happened at Tala's.

Shadow followed, prancing like a puppy the moment Pearl released them never making a sound but clicking about on the hard stone floors as the old woman turned from them to shuffle slowly deeper into the medicine shop towards a small counter separating the back of the store to the front.

"Tala, is she like you?" His words were hushed as Pearl chastised the dog following her as she pulled a small bag of treats from behind her counter and proceeded to fill Shadow's muzzle.

"No, Pearl is completely human. She is a medicine woman, a shaman." There was a small tint of sorrow to Tala's voice, one that Bucky did not miss as he looked at her to find her smiling sadly as she watched Shadow being pampered.

Tala loved Pearl as if the woman were her own family. She'd saved Pearls family from an attack by a group of men who'd let their hate of those with darker skin work them into a frenzy, and since then, Pearl had thrown herself into the natural arts of their people.

Pearl had wanted to understand why Tala was the way she was, and wanted to be a powerful warrior woman of old as well. The closest she'd come was as a medicine woman who had rose to somewhat of a legend herself.

She was blessed by the gods with talent and had helped Tala for the whole of her life with remedies, talismans, and as a connection to the gods Tala held still dear.

"You took your time coming to me, I felt nature's balance turn."

"Then you know what I am here to ask."

"Of course I do."

The hint of pride behind Pearl's words made even Bucky's lips perk up in a momentary smile, as Pearl motioned for them to join her at her counter where she had managed to nestle herself into a large armchair that had seen better days.

Tala had let Shadow's lead go and now with empty hands moved forward to lean against the counter full of small bowls of different powders, flowers, and deep colored spices.

Bucky on the other hand although he had moved forward, he remained mainly behind Tala silent.

He didn't want to draw attention to himself, he felt like an intruder to these two women's interactions. Clearly this strong woman had felt what had happened to Tala and now Tala was here because of it.

He felt like some side note, and although it wasn't a bad feeling, he just felt like he should be far away by now. He should have left D.C., he should be running, and getting as far away as he could from Hydra and everything else he'd done.

"Pearl, I need to be able to control this when I touch him. It keeps being dragged out of me the moment his skin touches mine. Either controlled, or I need your help on returning his mind to himself. You've felt his soul, you know I wouldn't bring you into this unless I felt it was safe."

Buck actually jerked at Tala's words, completely floored at them. This was still about him?

She hardly knew him and now her every move was about helping him.

James could not fathom that type of kindness, he simply could not understand it at all.

"No Tala, don't ask for help for me."

"Hey Martyr, shut up." Tala smiled genuinely at the man before returning her attention to her old friend who had now pulled herself back up from her sitting position, to try and stand once more.

Without thinking, James moved around the counter to wrap an arm around Pearl's shoulder and grasp her hand in his own helping her to stand.

The exchange was silent and quick as once she'd found her footing, he moved away quickly to return to his place just a bit behind Tala.

Pearl's eyes watched him the entire time he moved, a lilting ghost of a smile on her lips.

"There's nothing I can do to help you control what has been given to you. That is only something that you can learn for yourself. Him, on the other hand, may be a different question."

Grabbing a small ledger book, Pearl flipped it open to a freshly tagged page still wet with ink.

Pearl hadn't switched over the anything new, including a ball point pen and had continued to use a fountain pen which left small splotches throughout her writing.

"As you know, memories are not as hard to find as most think. Now, I am not making promises that I can bring them back in a flood, and even with what I do, your help will still be needed to pull them free from the rubble after being shaken free."

Tala leaned forward reading the open ledger of ingredients, the power her old friend possessed never ceasing to amaze her. Pearl had known exactly what she'd needed before Tala had even made the choice to come see her.

Tala moved to begin collecting the ingredients from around the shop, careful to bring each thing back for Pearl to inspect and ration out what she needed. Bucky moved out of her way, silent in his scrutiny as he watched her, unsure of the next thing for him to do.

"Barnes, come here." His name being called by Pearl made him jump as he'd been watching Tala near the front of the store pulling two glass canisters from a low lying cupboard.

His feet marched forward, nearly bewitched as he found himself mere inches away from the small native woman who looked up at him an amused expression as she leaned against an ever crowding counter.

"You don't understand yet do you?"

"All I understand, is that within a span of a day a woman I don't know is changing the course of her life in an attempt to fix my head."

Pearl reached up and tapped his cheek with her weathered fingertips in the lightest slap he'd ever felt in his entire life.

"Don't be smart."

Bucky stared at her in disbelief as the small rickety woman returned to lining the things Tala was bringing her in a sequence specific only to her.

He'd been a killer, the most feared Hydra operative ever, and this old grandmother just hushed him with a tap.

"She understands that she's been shepherded here by the choices of fate. Our culture and lives have ever been shrouded in the reality that our choices are there to make, only to bring us to a reason for our existence. Someone's reason might simply be to change the course of one others. Another's might be to change the course of millions. You are important to this world, no matter the evil that has wrought you or you have wrought. She's been given clarity that not many receive, and that is to know her path, and in turn, yours. Your power remains in your past, and so here we are."

Her words felt like a final speech, and so James didn't even attempt to try and form an intelligent answer.

It was the most terrifying thing he was facing so far in his journey.

The thought that his actions, the things he'd done and were going to do had a hand in shaping someone's entire world, was absolutely frightening. It made complete sense, and he'd known in somewhere deep within him, had been told it by many over the course of his entire life but to truly be faced with the reality.

To accept it.

A clatter brought him back to the scene at hand, to find Tala placing several items in front of Pearl looking at him with a quizzical look to his face.

He looked at her with a new found respect, to be faced with something as imminent as your life's purpose and to face it with humor and no reservations, took the strength of... of a hero.

Bucky felt his throat choke up, as she gave him a smile of reassurance turning back to Pearl.

Here she was reassuring him, an hour after she'd had her entire life changed by power she couldn't control.

Pearl and Tala had begun to speak quickly, arranging things between themselves, and he didn't want to interrupt that but he had to touch her. He needed her anchor, and he had never felt weaker than in that moment of realization.

He may have been an enhanced fighting machine, with power to kill a hundred men without a falter, but he was broken.

Moving sluggishly, Bucky took his post behind Tala like a gargoyle and as she continued to speak to Pearl, he slid his metal hand onto her left hip finally able to breathe with the touch.

Tala hardly registered James as he slid his hand onto her side, intent on Pearl and her instructions for the ceremony. It was relatively basic, but Pearl had kept it such knowing that as with most things it was the one performing the rite that gave true power.

"I can't cast this, Tala. Not because of strength, but for its ending purpose."

"Like I'd doubt you." Tala offered a hand across the counter, which the older looking woman instantly took in her own. Turning to look at Bucky behind her, Tala nudged her head towards the ingredients before her.

"Bet you're just dying to know what we're doing?" Still unable to speak, Bucky shrugged as the cold metal of his hand warmed against her body. He hadn't thought of it at all, and as foolish as it sounded considering it was the last thing he should do ever again, but he trusted her in whatever she meant to do.

Tala would have laughed, if she didn't feel his fear that was taking him over. It was unlike the familiar fear of himself, and fear of being attacked. This fear was for the future.

"We are going to send your subconscious within itself. You will be able to go through your own memories, finding them at a much quicker pace than I could alone because as a part of the memory emerges, you will be able to repair the whole thing. I will be there with you, guiding and helping. I will pull you back if it gets too much."

No words, Bucky nodded in agreement.


End file.
